Walter Sweating Fabric Manikin

Walter Sweating Fabric Manikin (Walter Sweating Fabric Mannequin) is a new generation of smart sweating fabric manikin developed by Qinsun and famous professors from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. It is a Simulation of perspiration in sweating fabric manikin an important tool for objectively and accurately evaluating thermal comfort or pressure.

Since the development of the first non-sweating, single segment copper thermal manikin by the US Army in 1940s, there have been numerous developments worldwide in thermal manikin technologies. Nevertheless, the simulation of perspiration has continued to be one of the major challenges. Inspired by the thermoregulation system of the human body, a novel sweating fabric manikin nicknamed “Walter” has been developed in Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The new sweating manikin achieved perspiration over the entire body and a very high measurement accuracy (viz. a CV of less 5%), yet with a cost of only a small fraction of other sweating manikins developed so far.

The improved Walter Sweating Fabric Mannequin has been used to study the influence of walking motion on clothing insulation and evaporation resistance, including improved "walking motion" simulation, design and construction of automatic water supply, and real-time measurement by adjusting the pump inside the human body Evaporate water loss and regulate "skin" temperature. Tests on commercial clothing suits show that the measurement of clothing’s thermal insulation and moisture resistance has good repeatability, and the coefficient of variation is generally less than 5%. In addition to heat insulation and moisture resistance, the percentage of moisture accumulation in clothes is a very useful parameter to measure the comfort of clothes.

Full-body mannequin for enhanced clothing testing

Walter Sweating Fabric Manikin (Walter Sweating Fabric Mannequin) is designed in accordance with ASTM and ISO standards to meet the needs of clothing evaluation research. It provides data for users who research clothing and outdoor equipment. Although our standard 26-zone model meets general clothing or environmental testing needs, Walter can be customized for faster transient response, larger environmental range, or suitable for other research capabilities. In addition, the model can also choose the sweat system, fluid distribution system, reservoir and wicking fabric surface to provide greater flexibility in the test environment.

What's the price?

The new invention-Walter is inspired by the thermoregulation system of human body. With the original use of a breathable fabric to simulate the skin and a water circulation system to simulate the blood circulation, the novel manikin achieved perspiration over the entire body and very high measurement accuracy (viz. a CV of less 5%), yet with a cost of only a small fraction of other sweating manikins developed so far.

it takes only one step to measure the two most important parameters - thermal insulation and moisture vapour resistance. The arms and legs of “Walter” can be motorized to simulate walking motion. The perspiration rate can be regulated by changing the skin temperature and having a fabric skin of different moisture permeability. Since it mainly consists of water, it has a similar weight and heat capacity to a human body, which is also composed of mainly water. Figure 1 shows the front view of “Walter”. The main dimension of “Walter” is listed in Table 1.

“Walter” consists of the following sub-systems:

1.Water circulation system.

2.System for the simulation of “walking” motion

3.Online water supply system.

4.Control and measurement system.

Articulated joints and embedded components to increase usability

Walter Sweating Fabric Manikin is fully hinged and can be placed on the shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and ankles Provides various postures of movement. it providing complete equipment control, fault detection, data recording and analysis functions.

Adaptation standard:

-Nordic standards (eg INSTA 352-355)

-European standards (e.g. EN-511 2005, EN-13537 2002)

-American standards (such as ASTM-F1291 2005 and ASTM-F1720 1996)

-International standards (e.g. ISO-15831 2003)

Features

 1. Purple dolphin model with good thermal conductivity.

2. Dark treatment with the same skin radiation value as humans . Perfect simulation of human skin;

3.The modular manikin structure, easy to dismantle. Achieving the scene assembly measurement in the narrow space.

4. 11 independent control heating sections with high precision.

5. Heat insulation capacity in each independent heating section. Achieve special test requirements of the human body temperature difference. And the temperature difference up to 3 ℃ in the adjacent section. Easy to disassemble and install due to the 6 detachable joints.

6. Head cable drawing-off way  is easy for  clothing wear off.

7. 11 internal temperature monitoring segments, 11 external temperature monitoring segments, 11 power output segments, 4 ambient temperature monitoring segments, 2 environmental humidity monitoring segments.

8. PID algorithm combined with fuzzy algorithm to ensure good control accuracy.

9. Four kinds of work modes with automatic conversion and data record function: Constant temperature test, variable temperature test, constant power test, variable power test.

10. The analysis software provides the results of thermal resistance and CLO value.

Built-in thermal comfort evaluation model and the EQT evaluation model, which can analyze the thermal comfort feeling of the human body in the closed environment and the non-uniform thermal environment. And the thermal comfort value is quantifiable.

11. Anti-leakage safety protection device with the function of overrun alarm and overheating automatic power off.

Keywords: sweating, perspiration, manikin, thermal comfort, clothing, environmental ergonomics.

Detail Simulation of perspiration in sweating fabric manikin-Walter PDF down