Who Tests If Heat-Proof Clothing Actually Works? These Poor Sweating Mannequins
Feb 14, 2024
auto_awesome
Learn about the use of advanced mannequins equipped with sensors and liquid supply to test heatproof clothing. Discussion on using thermomanicans to test cooling strategies and applying reflective coating to street surfaces to prevent heat absorption.
Mannequins like Andy allow textile scientists to test clothing capable of handling extreme heat, ensuring our safety and comfort in a warming world.
Thermomanikins, such as Andy, help researchers understand the limits of the human body in extreme temperatures and test cooling strategies to stay safe and comfortable in hot environments.
Deep dives
Sweating Mannequins: Testing Heatproof Clothing
Thermetrics, a Seattle-based firm, has developed sophisticated mannequins like Andy to test how the human body reacts to extreme heat. As the world gets warmer, clothing designers, car manufacturers, and militaries are investing billions of dollars to develop technology that keeps people safe, comfortable, and fashionable in hot environments. Testing this gear on humans has drawbacks, such as being expensive and subjective. That's why the military began building thermomanikins, human-shaped heaters, in the 1940s to test garments for soldiers. These mannequins have evolved over time, with enhancements like internal cooling and modified sweating functions, enabling researchers to mimic the body's attempt to heat and cool itself. They can also be used to understand the limits of the body in extreme temperatures and test cooling strategies.
Research and Simulations with Thermomanikins
Thermomanikins produced by Thermetrics, such as Andy, Liz, Ruth, and Stan, serve various purposes. Researchers at Arizona State University use Andy to replicate scenarios and understand why people may suffer heatstroke, pushing the mannequin's core temperature to limits that can't be done with humans. The mannequins can also model and test cooling strategies, directing airflow more efficiently and allowing for studies on cool pavements' impact on body temperature. These mannequins, with their virtual simulations of human physiology, provide valuable insights as the world heats up and demands answers to questions about staying safe and comfortable in extreme heat.
1.
Testing Heatproof Clothing with Sweating Mannequins
These mannequins undergo daily torture at the hands of textile scientists, but their suffering means we humans can have future-proofed clothing capable of handling our warming world. Thanks for listening to WIRED. Talk to you next time for more stories from WIRED.com and read this story here.