Fuente: Textiles (MDPI) Textiles, Vol. 6, Pages 59: Towards Standardised Evaluation of Cooling Garments: Validation of a Novel Test Protocol
Textiles doi: 10.3390/textiles6020059
Authors:
Miriam Martínez-Albert
Raquel Belda-Anaya
David Mínguez-García
Eva Bou-Belda

Personal cooling garments are designed to help individuals manage excess heat in high-temperature environments. The thermal effects of these garments are typically evaluated through thermal manikin experiments or human subject tests. However, there remains an insufficient understanding of the correlation between the cooling efficacy of garments tested with thermal manikins and the thermal responses observed in the human body. This study seeks to establish thermal correspondence by integrating a novel thermal manikin-based testing protocol with physiological simulation software and controlled human-subject trials. A phase change material (PCM) cooling vest serves as a representative textile system for comparison. The results indicate that the manikin-based protocol effectively replicates the non-linear skin temperature drop and thermal stabilisation phases evident in humans, demonstrating a maximum deviation of only 0.2 °C in skin temperature (Tsk) across varying metabolic loads. These findings provide specific experimental evidence on the minimal deviation between the manikin’s skin temperature and human trials, demonstrating that the established novel testing protocol is capable of accurately detecting the heat-flux saturation points and latent heat discharge of the textile system. The proposed approach endorses this protocol as a robust, reproducible methodology for assessing thermal comfort and serves as a starting point for future international standardised protocols in personal cooling textiles, especially where human safety cannot be guaranteed.