Determining the volume of the human body and microclimatic air layers by 3D CAD scanning technology

Abstract

Between the clothing garments and the human body, the microclimatic layers are formed, which hold air and portion of sweat evaporated from the examinee‘s body. The air inside the microclimatic layer affect the thermal insulation value of the clothing garments and ensembles. Since ISO 9920:2009 defines the total clothing insulation as a thermal insulation from the body surface to an environment, including all the clothing, the enclosed air layers and the boundary air layer, formed around the body, it can be concluded that the dry heat loss from the body is a combination of both the resistance provided by the clothing and from the entrapped microclimatic air, apropos the heat transferred by the exposed skin and the heat passing through the clothing. It is thus important to quantify the volume of the enclosed microclimatic air layer. In order to investigate the volume of the microclimatic air layer, the examinees were initially scanned by the use of non-contact 3D CAD method, and afterwards scans extraction and the scanned data processing was performed by reverse modelling with a Geomagic Design X software. Once the model was processed, a volume or an area measurements of the scans were determined by a Geomagic Verify software