Thermophysiological models and their applications: a review

The human body's heat exchange and its interaction with the surrounding environment has in the past years been the research focus of a number of disciplines. As a result, a number of human thermoregulation models have been developed since the first was developed in 1970. The aim of this paper is to conduct a review of existing thermophysiological models for the whole body and isolated body segments. The course of the development from simple to more complex models is shown, and most recognized thermal models such as Fiala, Berkeley Comfort Model, Tanabe, and ThermoSem model are concisely described. Furthermore, possible applications of the models in various research disciplines are introduced. In the built environment, the developed models are used as part of the methodology for modelling thermal comfort in buildings.