A climate chamber study on subjective and physiological responses of airport passengers from walking to a sedentary status in summer

Passengers usually walk a long distance before arriving at the seating areas of the departure lounge in airport terminals. The current standards for airport terminals have not considered passengers' thermal comfort during the walking status and the variations in thermal comfort with the dwell time during the sedentary period after walking. Therefore, 14 male subjects dressed in 0.57 clo were recruited to simulate passengers in the summer in the climate chamber. The subjects walked for 5 min, 10 min, and 15 min, respectively, at a pace of 1.1-1.2 m/s with a 5 kg bag at 26 degrees C. Subsequently, they entered the sedentary phase under three conditions with different operative temperatures (T-op) (23 degrees C, 26 degrees C, and 29 degrees C). Each subject participated in nine experiments. Variations in subjective perceptions and physiological parameters were recorded throughout the study. The summer design parameters for Chinese airport terminals (25-26 degrees C, 50% RH) did not satisfy the passengers' thermal comfort when the walking time exceeded 10 min. Exponential relationships between neutral T-op (T-n) and time were acquired for the sedentary phase. After walking for 5 min, 10 min, and 15 min, the T-n values were 24.0 degrees C, 21.0 degrees C, and 18.9 degrees C, respectively. T-n required 17.6-21.0 min to recover to the steady-state sedentary level. Thus, the comfort zones under the current standards may not meet the thermal comfort demands of passengers with short dwell times.

Automated summary

This study recruited 14 male subjects dressed in 0.57 clo to simulate passengers in a summer airport terminal and investigated the impact of walking time and sedentary time on passengers’ thermal comfort. The results showed that the current standards for airport terminals were unable to meet the thermal comfort demands of passengers with walking time exceeding 10 minutes. Additionally, the study found that it took a certain amount of time for the comfortable temperature to recover to a steady level during the sedentary phase.