Assessment of environmental heat load

Abstract

Merits and demerits of existing indices of heat stress like Effective Temperature, Corrected Effective Temperature and Predicted four-hour Sweat Rate, have been briefly discussed. None of them being applicable in the open sun, two indices, New Corrected Effective Temperature, have been developed respectively at the Defence Research Laboratory (Stores), Kanpur; and the Defence Science Laboratory, New Delhi, taking into account different colors of clothing and complexion of skin. The possibility of using dry and wet Kata cooling powers for rough but quick assessment of heat load has been explored.