Faming Wang
KU Leuven, Department of Biosystems (BIOSYST), Faculty Member
- Email address: dr.famingwang@gmail.comedit
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To understand the impacts of large-scale circulation during the evolution of El Niño cycle on tropical cyclones (TC) is important and useful for TC forecast. Based on best-track data from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center and reanalysis... more
To understand the impacts of large-scale circulation during the evolution of El Niño cycle on tropical cyclones (TC) is important and useful for TC forecast. Based on best-track data from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center and reanalysis data from National Centers for Environmental Prediction for the period 1975–2014, we investigated the influences of two types of El Niño, the eastern Pacific El Niño (EP-El Niño) and central Pacific El Niño (CP-El Niño), on global TC genesis. We also examined how various environmental factors contribute to these influences using a modified genesis potential index (MGPI). The composites reproduced for two types of El Niño, from their developing to decaying phases, were able to qualitatively replicate observed cyclogenesis in several basins except for the Arabian Sea. Certain factors of MGPI with more influence than others in various regions are identified. Over the western North Pacific, five variables were all important in the two El Niño types during developing summer (July–August–September) and fall (October–November–December), and decaying spring (April–May–June) and summer. In the eastern Pacific, vertical shear and relative vorticity are the crucial factors for the two types of El Niño during developing and decaying summers. In the Atlantic, vertical shear, potential intensity and relative humidity are important for the opposite variation of EP- and CP-El Niños during decaying summers. In the Southern Hemisphere, the five variables have varying contributions to TC genesis variation during peak season (January–February–March) for the two types of El Niño. In the Bay of Bengal, relative vorticity, humidity and omega may be responsible for clearly reduced TC genesis during developing fall for the two types and slightly suppressed TC cyclogenesis during EP-El Niño decaying spring. In the Arabian Sea, the EP-El Niño generates a slightly positive anomaly of TC genesis during developing falls and decaying springs, but the MGPI failed to capture this variation.
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9th Textile Bioengineering and Informatics Symposium / 6th Asoam Protective Clothing Conference, Jul 12-15, 2016
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Infectious diseases have caused significant physical harm to humans as well as enormous economic losses over the years. Effective ventilation and distribution of fresh air could help to reduce indoor cross-infection. The computational... more
Infectious diseases have caused significant physical harm to humans as well as enormous economic losses over the years. Effective ventilation and distribution of fresh air could help to reduce indoor cross-infection. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method was used in this paper to investigate airborne transmission with seven different air distribution methods. The revised Wells-Riley model, which took into account the non-uniform air distribution generated with the methods, was used to calculate the infection probability in an office room shared by ten occupants for 4 h. One of the occupants was an infector. The significance of the infector's location was studied. The obtained infection probability was compared to that obtained in the case of complete air mixing, which is uncommon in practice. Under specified conditions of this study, personalized ventilation (PV) performed the best in terms of preventing cross-infection, followed by displacement ventilation (DV), impinging jet ventilation (IJV), stratum ventilation (SV) and wall attachment ventilation (WAV). The number of infected occupants was reduced below the number obtained under the complete mixing assumption by using these air distribution methods. Mixing ventilation (MV) and diffuse ceiling ventilation (DCV) exhibited the worst performance. In comparison to the case of complete mixing the infection probability for seven out of nine susceptible occupants was higher with MV and for all occupants in the case of DCV. In SV, the position of the infector had a clear impact on the infection probability of susceptible individuals. WAV may perform better in practice if the system is well designed. The location of the exhaust outlets had a significant impact on the infection probability for DCV.
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ABSTRACTIt has been well established that athletic performance is greatly affected by environmental heat. Numerous studies have attempted to find reliable cooling strategies to improve athletic performance while exercising in the heat.... more
ABSTRACTIt has been well established that athletic performance is greatly affected by environmental heat. Numerous studies have attempted to find reliable cooling strategies to improve athletic performance while exercising in the heat. Whole-body pre-cooling has been found to enhance endurance performance in both dry and humid heat. Nevertheless, positive physiological alternations induced by pre-cooling gradually disappear during exercise. Hence, there is a great need to find effective per-cooling strategies to improve athletic performance in the heat. Unfortunately, it’s impractical to adopt pre-cooling approaches as a per-cooling modality to improve athletic performance due to inherent issues of practicality. Thus, a narrative review was conducted to examine the impact of head, neck and facial cooling on athletic performance in the heat. Based on current evidences, head, neck and facial cooling could greatly decrease local skin temperature at those areas where cooling was applied...
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This paper presents a method to characterize the pore structure of the fibre surface for the honeycomb-patterned PET fibers, by using a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and image processing techniques. They consist of linear channel... more
This paper presents a method to characterize the pore structure of the fibre surface for the honeycomb-patterned PET fibers, by using a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and image processing techniques. They consist of linear channel pores (LCP) and ellipse pores (EP). The surface pore distribution and micropore numbers varied from each fiber to another, which can make significant differences on the property of the spun yarns. It is proposed that the fiber should be sufficiently rinsed with clean water before dewatering and setting ...
Digital twins technology (DTT) is an application framework with breakthrough rules. With the deep integration of the virtual information world and physical space, it becomes the basis for realizing intelligent machining production lines,... more
Digital twins technology (DTT) is an application framework with breakthrough rules. With the deep integration of the virtual information world and physical space, it becomes the basis for realizing intelligent machining production lines, which is of great significance to intelligent processing in industrial manufacturing. This review aims to study the application of DTT and the Metaverse in fluid machinery in the past 5 years by summarizing the application status of pumps and fans in fluid machinery from the perspective of DTT and the Metaverse through the collection, classification, and summary of relevant literature in the past 5 years. The research found that in addition to relatively mature applications in intelligent manufacturing, DTT and Metaverse technologies play a critical role in the development of new pump products and technologies and are widely used in numerical simulation and fault detection in fluid machinery for various pumps and other fields. Among fan-type fluid m...
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It is well known that uncompensable heat stress greatly impairs endurance and team sport-related performance because an increase in the core temperature directly induces a greater magnitude of the central fatigue in the heat than in... more
It is well known that uncompensable heat stress greatly impairs endurance and team sport-related performance because an increase in the core temperature directly induces a greater magnitude of the central fatigue in the heat than in thermal neutral environments. Numerous studies have been conducted in an attempt to discover reliable cooling strategies for improving endurance performance and repeated sprint ability while exercising in the heat. Whole-body pre-cooling has been shown to improve endurance performance in both dry and humid heat. Despite this, the reduction in thermal perceptions associated with pre-cooling gradually narrows during intense exercise. Hence, effective per-cooling strategies to improve athletic performance in the heat are required. Unfortunately, due to practical issues, adopting pre-cooling approaches as a per-cooling (cooling during exercise) modality to improve athletic performance is impractical. Thus, we sought to examine the impact of head, neck and fa...
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Dear Editor, We would like to thank Prof. EH Wissler for his thorough reading of our recent papers (Lu et al. 2015a, 2015b) and also for his comments. Dr. Wissler suggested re-analyzing the data because several published empirical... more
Dear Editor, We would like to thank Prof. EH Wissler for his thorough reading of our recent papers (Lu et al. 2015a, 2015b) and also for his comments. Dr. Wissler suggested re-analyzing the data because several published empirical equations generated unreasonable correction factors. We do fully agree that the head and the torso of the thermal manikin does not move during walking. Hence, we reanalyzed the data and would like to report revised results in this Reply to comments on papers by Lu et al. The new universal correction equation for the local thermal insulation of the boundary air layer and clothing ensembles at those motionless body parts (i.e., head, upper arm, chest, abdomen, back, pelvis, thigh) may be written as
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While personal protective equipment (PPE) protects healthcare workers from viruses, it also increases the risk of heat stress. In this study, the effects of environmental heat stress, the insulation of the PPE inner-garment layer, and the... more
While personal protective equipment (PPE) protects healthcare workers from viruses, it also increases the risk of heat stress. In this study, the effects of environmental heat stress, the insulation of the PPE inner-garment layer, and the personal cooling strategy on the physiological and perceptual responses of PPE-clad young college students were evaluated. Three levels of wet bulb globe temperatures (WBGT = 15 °C, 28 °C, and 32 °C) and two types of inner garments (0.37 clo and 0.75 clo) were chosen for this study. In an uncompensable heat stress environment (WBGT = 32 °C), the effects of two commercially available personal cooling systems, including a ventilation cooling system (VCS) and an ice pack cooling system (ICS) on the heat strain mitigation of PPE-clad participants were also assessed. At WBGT = 15 °C with 0.75 clo inner garments, mean skin temperatures were stabilized at 31.2 °C, Hskin was 60–65%, and HR was about 75.5 bpm, indicating that the working scenario was on the...
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General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide... more
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To determine the intrinsic and effective clothing evaporative resistances,both in the individual clothing, and in the nulti-layer clothing ensembles meant for winter season, a fabric sweating thermal manikin Walter was used. Based on the... more
To determine the intrinsic and effective clothing evaporative resistances,both in the individual clothing, and in the nulti-layer clothing ensembles meant for winter season, a fabric sweating thermal manikin Walter was used. Based on the tests performed on the individual garments, two empirical equations were developed for the estimation of these resistances, useful either to clothing manufacturers- to roughly estimate the clothing intrinsic/effective evaporative resistance, or to consumers-to assure them an optimal thermal comfort.
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A seven-layers parabolic model with Stephan–Boltzmann interface conditions and Robin boundary conditions is mathematically formulated to describe the heat transfer process in environment-three layers clothing-air gap-body system. Based on... more
A seven-layers parabolic model with Stephan–Boltzmann interface conditions and Robin boundary conditions is mathematically formulated to describe the heat transfer process in environment-three layers clothing-air gap-body system. Based on this model, the solution to the corresponding inverse problem of simultaneous determination of triple fabric layers thickness is given in this paper, which satisfies the thermal safety requirements of human skin. By implementing a stable finite difference scheme, the thermal burn injuries on the skin of the body can be predicted. Then a kind of stochastic method, named as particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, is developed to numerically solve the inverse problem. Numerical results indicate that the formulation of the model and proposed algorithm for solving the corresponding inverse problem are effective. Hence, the results in this paper will provide scientific supports for designing and manufacturing thermal protective clothing (TPC).
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Silver nanoparticle (AgNP) and AgNP/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposite impregnated medical grade polyviscose textile pads were formed using a facile, surface-mediated wet chemical solution-dipping process, without further... more
Silver nanoparticle (AgNP) and AgNP/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposite impregnated medical grade polyviscose textile pads were formed using a facile, surface-mediated wet chemical solution-dipping process, without further annealing. Surfaces were sequentially treated in situ with a sodium borohydride (NaBH4) reducing agent, prior to formation, deposition, and fixation of Ag nanostructures and/or rGO nanosheets throughout porous non-woven (i.e., randomly interwoven) fibrous scaffolds. There was no need for stabilising agent use. The surface morphology of the treated fabrics and the reaction mechanism were characterised by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra, ultraviolet-visible (UV–Vis) absorption spectra, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS) energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDS), and scanning electron microscopic (SEM). XRD and EDS confirmed the presence of pure-phase metallic silver. Variation of reducing agent concentration all...
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The hybrid personal cooling system (HPCS) consisted of ventilation fans and phase change materials (PCMs) covered with insulation pads is a promising wearable cooling system to mitigate heat strain and heat-related illnesses of... more
The hybrid personal cooling system (HPCS) consisted of ventilation fans and phase change materials (PCMs) covered with insulation pads is a promising wearable cooling system to mitigate heat strain and heat-related illnesses of occupational workers with heavy labor in hot environments. Effects of clothing characteristics (e.g., thermal resistance of insulation pads, latent heat and melting temperature of PCMs) on the thermal performance of the HPCS have been investigated in detail in our previous study. Apart from the aforementioned factors, environmental conditions, i.e., environmental temperature and relative humidity, also significantly affect the thermal performance of the HPCS. In this paper, a numerical parametric study was performed to investigate the effects of the environmental temperature and relative humidity (RH) on the thermal management of the HPCS. Five levels of air temperature under environmental RH=50% were chosen (i.e., 32, 34, 36, 38 and 40 ºC) to study the impac...
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Protective clothing protects wearers from hostile environments, including extremes of heat and cold. Whilst some types of protective clothing may be designed primarily for non-thermal hazards (e.g. biological hazards), a key challenge in... more
Protective clothing protects wearers from hostile environments, including extremes of heat and cold. Whilst some types of protective clothing may be designed primarily for non-thermal hazards (e.g. biological hazards), a key challenge in all protective clothing remains wearer comfort and the management of thermal stress (i.e. excessive heat or cold). This book reviews key types of protective clothing, technologies for heating and cooling and, finally, modeling aspects of thermal stress and strain. Explores different types of protective clothing, their uses and their requirements, with an emphasis on full-scale or prototype clothing, including immersion suits, body armour and space suits Considers novel and commercial technologies for regulating temperature in protective clothing, including phase change materials, shape memory alloys, electrically heated clothing and air and water perfusion-based cooling systems Reviews the human thermoregulatory system and the methods of modelling of thermal stress in protective clothing through various conditions, including cold water survival and firefighting.
Research Interests: Engineering and Clothing
The aim of the study was to identify whether a ventilation cooling shirt was effective in reducing heat strain in a hot climate. Eight female volunteers were exposed to heat (38 °C, 45% relative humidity) for 2 h with simulated office... more
The aim of the study was to identify whether a ventilation cooling shirt was effective in reducing heat strain in a hot climate. Eight female volunteers were exposed to heat (38 °C, 45% relative humidity) for 2 h with simulated office work. In the first hour they were in normal summer clothes (total thermal insulation 0.8 clo); in the second hour a ventilation cooling shirt was worn on top. After the shirt was introduced for 1 h, the skin temperatures at the scapula and the chest were significantly reduced (p < 0.05). The mean skin and core temperatures were not reduced. The subjects felt cooler and more comfortable by wearing the shirt, but the cooling effect was most conspicuous only during the initial 10 min. The cooling efficiency of the ventilation shirt was not very effective under the low physical activity in this hot climate.
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The aim of the study was to identify whether a ventilation cooling shirt was effective in reducing heat strain in a hot climate. Eight female volunteers were exposed in heat (38°C, 45% relative humidity) for 2 hours with simulated office... more
The aim of the study was to identify whether a ventilation cooling shirt was effective in reducing heat strain in a hot climate. Eight female volunteers were exposed in heat (38°C, 45% relative humidity) for 2 hours with simulated office work. In the first hour they were in normal summer clothes (total thermal insulation 0.8 clo); in the second hour a ventilation cooling shirt was worn on top. After the shirt was introduced for one hour, the skin temperatures at the scapula and the chest were significantly reduced (p<0.05). The mean skin and the core temperatures were not reduced. The subjects felt cooler and more comfortable by wearing the shirt, but the cooling effect was most conspicuous only during the initial 10 minutes. The cooling efficiency of the ventilation shirt was not very effective under the low physical activity in this hot climate.
In this study, we validated comfort and limit temperatures of four sleeping bags with different levels of insulation defined according to EN 13537. Six male subjects and four female subjects underwent totally 20 two-hour exposures in four... more
In this study, we validated comfort and limit temperatures of four sleeping bags with different levels of insulation defined according to EN 13537. Six male subjects and four female subjects underwent totally 20 two-hour exposures in four sleeping bags at four intended testing temperatures: 11.2, 3.8, 2.1 and -9.0 °C. The subjective perceptions and physiological responses of these subjects were reported and analyzed. It was found that the EN 13537 defined comfort temperature and limit temperature were underestimated for sleeping bags MA3, HAG and MAM. The predictions are so conservative that further revision may be required to meet the requirements of both manufacturers and consumers. In contrast, for the sleeping bag MA0 with a low level of insulation, the limit temperature defined by EN 13537 was slightly overestimated. In addition, two individual case studies (-28.0 and -32.0 °C) demonstrated that low toe temperatures were widely observed among the male and female subjects, although the mean skin temperatures were almost within the thermoneutrality range (32.0-34.0 °C). It seems that the IREQ model (ISO 11079) overestimated both the comfort and limit temperatures of the sleeping bags. Finally, traditional sleeping bags may be required to be re-designed to provide consumers both whole body comfort as well as local thermal comfort at feet/toes or users need to be made aware of the higher need for their insulation.
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Real evaporative cooling efficiency, the ratio of real evaporative heat loss to evaporative cooling potential, is an important parameter to characterize the real cooling benefit for the human body. Previous studies on protective clothing... more
Real evaporative cooling efficiency, the ratio of real evaporative heat loss to evaporative cooling potential, is an important parameter to characterize the real cooling benefit for the human body. Previous studies on protective clothing showed that the cooling efficiency decreases with increasing distance between the evaporation locations and the human skin. However, it is still unclear how evaporative cooling efficiency decreases as the moisture is transported from the skin to the clothing layer. In this study, we performed experiments with a sweating torso manikin to mimic three different phases of moisture absorption in one-layer tight-fitting sportswear. Clothing materials Coolmax(®) (CM; INVISTA, Wichita, Kansas, USA; 100%, profiled cross-section polyester fiber), merino wool (MW; 100%), sports wool (SW; 50% wool, 50% polyester), and cotton (CO; 100%) were selected for the study. The results demonstrated that, for the sportswear materials tested, the real evaporative cooling efficiency linearly decreases with the increasing ratio of moisture being transported away from skin surface to clothing layer (adjusted R(2) &gt;0.97). In addition, clothing fabric thickness has a negative effect on the real evaporative cooling efficiency. Clothing CM and SW showed a good ability in maintaining evaporative cooling efficiency. In contrast, clothing MW made from thicker fabric had the worst performance in maintaining evaporative cooling efficiency. It is thus suggested that thin fabric materials such as CM and SW should be used to manufacture one-layer tight-fitting sportswear.