MORE | Fall 2022

Impact of Human Body Shape on Convective Heat Transfer Coefficient

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People are exposed to a variety of thermal environments every day. Understanding and predicting an individual’s heat stress and strain potential in various thermal environments is crucial. Previous human thermal exposure studies have accounted only for average caucasian humans. However, the fact that every human has a unique body shape leaves behind a limited understanding of how different body shapes respond to different thermal environments. This research project addresses this knowledge gap through a comprehensive numerical study that will be performed to compute the convective heat transfer coefficient for body shapes representing the diverse U.S. population (male and female).

Student researcher

Shri Harri Viswanathan

Mechanical engineering

Hometown: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Graduation date: Fall 2023