Phase change cooling garment for thermal stress reduction: experimental evaluation and predictive modeling

This study experimentally evaluated a novel phase change cooling garment (PCCG) designed to alleviate heat stress for live-line workers. Tests were conducted in a climate chamber (38°C, 75% RH) with 15 participants performing treadmill walking at 5km/h. The PCCG demonstrated a maximum observed cooling duration of 116 minutes. It significantly reduced mean skin temperature by 2.6 ± 0.8°C and core temperature by 0.7 ± 0.2°C. Furthermore, the garment notably decreased sweat volume from 0.83 ± 0.13 kg to 0.55 ± 0.10 kg, reducing the comprehensive heat stress index from severe to mild. Subjective thermal comfort and thermal sensation votes improved significantly without inducing cold discomfort. A machine learning model (BP-RFE-SVM-PSO) developed to predict thermal comfort achieved an accuracy of 95.6% under these controlled laboratory conditions. The results demonstrate the PCCG's effectiveness in enhancing physiological and perceptual responses for workers in hot-humid environments.