SUITABILITY OF DIFFERENT METHODS AND MATERIALS FOR ACHIEVING COMFORT IN HOT ENVIRONMENTS

Humans working in hot environments require suitable methods to stay comfortable while engaging in strenuous activity. These methods include wearing clothing optimized for permitting the dissipation of heat from the body, methods of active cooling using supplied power to run fans, and the ability for evaporation of sweat from the skin to take place. Using information from various research articles, this paper aims to determine the most suitable methods for ensuring thermal comfort in hot environments. It also explores quantitative methods of determining how comfortable certain methods and materials are to the wearer. This paper concludes that the composition of the materials used plays a part in the effectiveness of heat dissipation, with synthetic materials with high permeability to allow sweat to evaporate being the most suitable. The design of articles of clothing should also be taken into consideration, with loose, flexible clothing showing benefits. In addition, active cooling systems such as those using fans and batteries to circulate air prove to be extremely effective. However, they come with the trade-off of an increased weight.