MRI-R2: Acquisition of a Thermal Manikin and Guarded Sweating Hotplate for Optimization of Functional Apparel Systems to Regulate Heat and Moisture

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)资助的。该项目要求获得资金，以购买一个生理监测和生物反馈系统、一个出汗保暖假人和一个有防护的出汗电热板。这种仪器使研究人员能够经验性地测量人体躯干通过各种面料、整理和服装组件的温度和湿度流动。根据这些经验数据，将开发计算模型，将这种流动模拟为身体位置的函数，从而允许在人体上设计和测试原型服装，以评估人体舒适度和功能服装在调节温度和湿度时的表现。本研究成果可应用于功能性服装的设计，以提高运动、军事、防护服、工作服的性能，同时改善人体舒适性。这些研究结果可能表明以人为中心的设计在功能性服装发展中的重要性。目前，功能性服装的设计目的是管理温度和湿度，而不考虑人体躯干不同位置的温度和湿度差异，从而导致材料成本增加，因为在不需要的地方使用昂贵的面料和/或面料。这项研究的一个结果可能是制造功能服装，这些服装可以实现他们想要的功能(例如有效地管理体力活动个体的热量和湿度)，同时增加感觉上的舒适性并降低购买服装的成本。这些仪器和数据也将被计算机科学、机械工程和服装设计专业的学生在多学科团队环境中直接使用。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This project requests funds to acquire a physiological monitoring and biofeedback system, a sweating thermal manikin and a guarded sweating hotplate. This instrumentation enables the researchers to empirically measure temperature and humidity flow from the human torso through various fabrics, finishes and garment assemblies. From this empirical data, computational models will be developed to model this flow as a function of body location, allowing prototype apparel to be designed and tested on humans to evaluate the human comfort level and the functional apparel's performance at regulating temperature and moisture. The results of this research can be applied towards the design of functional apparel for enhancing performance in sports, military, protective wear, work wear while improving human comfort.These research results may show the importance of human centered design on the development of functional apparel. Currently, functional apparel is designed to manage temperature and moisture without considering the differences in temperature and humidity in different locations of the human torso, leading to increased material costs by using expensive fabrics and/or finishes where they are not needed. One outcome from this research may be the manufacture of functional apparel which perform their desired functions (such as effectively managing heat and moisture of a physically active individual) while increasing perceived comfort and reducing the cost to purchase the apparel. This instrumentation and data will also be used directly by students in computer science, mechanical engineering and apparel design in a multidisciplinary team environment.