4,912 research outputs found
Thermal comfort conditions in airport terminals: Indoor or transition spaces?
No full textThis paper reports on the investigation of the thermal comfort conditions in three airport terminals in the UK. In the course of seasonal field surveys, the indoor environmental conditions were monitored in different terminal areas and questionnaire-guided interviews were conducted with 3087 terminal users. The paper focuses on the thermal perception, preference and comfort requirements of passengers and terminal staff. The two groups presented different satisfaction levels with the indoor environment and significant differences in their thermal requirements, while both preferring a thermal environment different to the one experienced. The thermal conflict emerges throughout the terminal spaces. The neutral and preferred temperatures for passengers were lower than for employees and considerably lower than the mean indoor temperature. Passengers demonstrated higher tolerance of the thermal conditions and consistently a wider range of comfor
Use pressure data below seat cushions to evaluate comfort
No full textDuring a flight, passengers spend most of their time sitting in their seats. Studying the comfort and discomfort while passengers are sitting is helpful to improve the overall comfort during a flight. Pressure mats are commonly used in studies to collect pressure distribution in order to research sitting comfort. Different from most past studies, in which pressure mats are placed on the top of the cushions, the focus of this paper is to show the potential of placing pressure mat below the seat cushion. Three identical cushions differing in stiffness were prepared. The pressure distribution of 12 sitting postures was collected from 33 subjects both at the top as well as at the bottom of the foam in a randomized order. After sitting on each cushion, the participant was asked to leave the seat and complete a sitting comfort and discomfort questionnaire. The results show that the softest cushion got the highest rank in short-term comfort and lowest rank in short-term discomfort. The recorded pressure distributions both on the top and at the bottom of the foam can influence comfort and discomfort. This indicates the potential to use pressure distributions under the foam to evaluate the perceived comfort and discomfort in sitting, which might reduce the intrusive feeling of theparticipants in comfort studies.Mechatronic DesignMaterials and Manufacturin
On the objective assessment of comfort
No full textIn this paper, a literature study is presented on the types of objective measures that can contribute to the prediction of (dis)comfort, the feasibility of measuring those factors, and the potential of building a model based on them. Results indicate that in addition to subjective measurements, objective measures might help us to understand the process towards comfort or discomfort better, and some of them might be used as predictors in modelling comfort/discomfort.Mechatronic DesignMaterials and Manufacturin
Exploring factors influencing visual comfort in an aircraft cabin
No full textVisual stimulus might influence comfort of passengers in air travel. For a better understanding of the visual comfort, it is crucial to identify the constructs of the visual stimulus in the cabin and the contributions of different elements. A two-step approach was adopted in this study where in the first step, several creative sessions were executed for exploring the effect of different elements in the cabin regarding their impact on visual comfort. To inspire the participants, all creative sessions were held in a Boeing 737 cabin where participants were free to explore and had an immersive experience. All identified elements in the creative session were collected and grouped to different categories, that is use as input for the second step, which is an online survey investigating a possible hierarchy of the impact of those categories of elements on visual comfort. Eight were summarized and the three most influential categories were lighting, colour and the space arrangement. These were significantly different from other categories, namely the seat shape, the pattern, the windows, accessories and existence of advertisements. Regarding the gender and the age of the participants, we did not find significant differences regarding the preferences.Mechatronic DesignMaterials and Manufacturin
Providence College Faculty Author Series 2014-2015: Dr. Comfort Ateh
No full textIn this installment, Dr. Comfort Ateh, faculty member of the Education department, discusses her recently published book Science Teachers\u27 Voices: Elicitation Practices and Insight on Formative Assessment
Providence College Faculty Author Series 2014-2015: Dr. Comfort Ateh
No full textIn this installment, Dr. Comfort Ateh, faculty member of the Education department, discusses her recently published book Science Teachers\u27 Voices: Elicitation Practices and Insight on Formative Assessment
Comfort Temperatures for the Low-Income Group in a Hot-Humid Climate
No full textThe results presented in this paper are part of the doctoral research that is being done at Delft University of Technology, Netherlands. One of the main objectives is to find the level of thermal comfort accepted by people from the low-income group in Surakarta, Indonesia. Personal aspects (gender and clothing index), characteristics of the dwelling (ventilation, orientation) and surrounding factors (effect of vegetation) were investigated to observe if they significantly influenced the people’s responses. Furthermore, these findings will be used to improve the dwellings in the community. A field-survey was conducted in this research involving 426 people from four kampongs in Surakarta. The neutral temperature in this group is found at 32.5°C and the comfort bandwidth ranges from 30 to 35°C, which is shown by four methods of deriving thermal comfort. Various factors were shown to influence the indoor air temperatures and the thermal response of the people.Architectural Engineering +TechnologyArchitectur
Indoor environmental quality, energy effciency and thermal comfort in the retroftting of housing: A literature review
No full textBuilding retrofitted to be resilient in the face of future climates may present risks for the health and comfort of the occupants, due to the indoor environmental quality changes involved under current building practices. This chapter is a literature review of recent peer-reviewed papers from a variety of fields identifying such potential hazards. Three topics are investigated: building envelope, HVAC systems and occupants. In terms of the building envelope, resilient buildings currently lead to more airtightness and thermal insulation, which can create humidity problems, accumulation of air pollutants or overheating. HVAC systems, however efficient, can jeopardize the indoor environmental quality, through ducts, filters, noise and maintenance. Respiratory system, eyes and skin conditions can arise with certain retrofitting measures. Moreover, such measures do not necessarily lead to energy savings, partly due to the occupants and their behaviours and partly due to the technologies and their feedback. Human factors should be combined into the development of retrofitting technologies. Thus, interdisciplinarity is needed to develop resilient buildings that will be energy-efficient and also healthy and comfortable for their occupants and the technologies need to be researched as interdependent components to be synthesized in their performance to result in a single enhanced goal.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Indoor Environmen
The influence of the angle of attack on passenger comfort
No full textThe angle of attack (AOA) of an airplane changes the direction of the gravitational force on passengers and thereby might influence passengers’ flying experience. However, the contribution of the AOA regarding comfort/discomfort is not fully explored. In this paper, we aim to fill this knowledge gap by identifying the relationships between the perceived comfort/ discomfort of passengers and the AOA of the plane during the take-off and climbing phases of a flight. Anexperiment is conducted in a Boeing 737 fuselage where 10 participants were recruited. Each participant experiences 3 setups of seats with different AOAs (3, 14 and 18 degrees) for 20 minutes, respectively. Participants were asked to complete several sets of questionnaires during each session, and their heart rate and the pressure on the seat and the backrest were recorded as well. Experiment results indicated that participants experienced 14-degree as the most comfortable angle with the lowest discomfort, which might be useful for airlines in setting up the take-off and climbingprocedure.Mechatronic DesignMaterials and Manufacturin
Comfort zone: Model or metaphor?
No full textThe comfort zone model is widespread within adventure education literature. It is based on the belief that when placed in a stressful situation people will respond by overcoming their fear and therefore grow as individuals. This model is often
presented to participants prior to activities with a highly perceived sense of risk and challenge which arouses strong emotional and physical responses to novel tasks (e.g., ropes courses or rock climbing activities). Students are encouraged to think about
‘stretching themselves’ by moving outside their comfort zone, to expand their preconceived limits and by inference learn (and become better people). This paper explores theories from cognitive and social psychology, based on the work of Piaget
and Festinger respectively, that underpin the comfort zone model. The perpetuation of this model which uses risk to promote situations of disequilibrium/dissonance does not find strong support in educational literature. It is therefore suggested that the comfort zone model be reframed as a metaphor, for possible discussion post activity, rather than being used as a model to
underpin programming and pedagogy in adventure education settings
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