Wearing comfort of two construction work uniforms
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to investigate wearing comfort of summer work uniforms judged by construction workers.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 189 male construction workers participated in a series of wear trials and questionnaire surveys in the summer of 2014. They were asked to randomly wear two types of work uniforms (i.e. uniforms A and B) in the two-day field survey and the subjective attributes of these uniforms were assessed. Three analytical techniques, namely, multiple regression, artificial neural network and fuzzy logic were used to predict wearing comfort affected by the six subjective sensations.
Findings
The results revealed that fuzzy logic was a robust and practical tool for predicting wearing comfort in terms of better prediction performance and more interpretable results than the other models. Pressure attributes were further found to exert a greater effect than thermal–wet attributes on wearing comfort. Overall, the use of uniform B exhibited profound benefits on wearing comfort because it kept workers cooler, drier and more comfortable with less work performance interference than wearing uniform A.
Originality/value
The findings provide a fresh insight into construction workers’ needs for work clothes, which further facilitates the improvement in the clothing tailor-made design and the enhancement of the well-being of workers.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This project is funded by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (RGC Project No. PolyU5107/11E). The research team is indebted to the technical support from technicians of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. In particular, the participation of volunteers in this study is gratefully acknowledged. This paper forms part of the research project entitled “Anti-heat stress clothing for construction workers in hot and humid weather”, from which other deliverables will be produced with different objectives/scopes but sharing common background and methodology. The authors also wish to acknowledge the contributions of other team members including Dr Michael Yam, Dr Del Wong, Prof Y Li, Dr YP Guo, Dr WF Song, Dr W Yi and Miss YJ Zhao. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Citation
Chan, A.P.C., Yang, Y., Wong, F.K.W., Chan, D.W.M. and Lam, E.W.M. (2015), "Wearing comfort of two construction work uniforms", Construction Innovation, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 473-492. https://doi.org/10.1108/CI-06-2015-0037
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited