Thermal comfort of seats as visualized by infrared thermography

Abstract

Published studies that deal with the question of how the temperature of chair seats influences human activities are few, but the studies considering such a factor, a function of the type of material, could contribute to improvements in the design of chairs. This study evaluates seat temperatures of 8 types of chairs made of different materials. The parts of the furniture that people come into contact with, and the thermal response of the material to heating and cooling have been evaluated. Infrared thermography was used for this, as it is a non-contact technique that does not present any type of risk in the measurement of temperatures. Seats made of synthetic leather (leatherette), wood and polyester fabric were found to have the highest temperatures, and the plywood seat showed the lowest. The study has also revealed that thermography can contribute to studies of thermal comfort of chair seats in addition to determining the most suitable material.

Keywords: Chair seats; Infrared thermography; Thermal comfort.