Ten young and healthy civilian participants will participate in the study. They will all go through a six days heat acclimation period in a heat chamber according to a valid protocol. After heat acclimation the participant will be randomly exposed to 4 conditions during four separate consecutive days: 1) walking on a treadmill for two hours in hot-wet conditions (30OC, 70% RH) while wearing military uniforms and a vest (control group); 2) walking on a treadmill for two hours in hot-dry conditions (40OC, 30% RH) while wearing military uniforms and a vest (control group); 3) walking on a treadmill for two hours in hot-wet conditions (30OC, 70% RH) while wearing military uniforms and a vest with a ventilator (experimental group); 4) walking on a treadmill for two hours in hot-dry conditions (40OC, 30% RH) while wearing military uniforms and a vest with a ventilator (experimental group). During the heat exposures, rectal temperature, skin temperature and heart rate will be continuously monitored. Subjective comfort measures, heat strain indices, sweat rate and sweat evaporation will be also measured/calculated. The differences in the above measures, during exposure to exercise in the heat between ventilator and no ventilator will be then analyzed.
The purpose of this preliminary experiment is to measure the effect of a novel ventilation system on the physiological strain during exercise in high heat load while wearing ballistic protective vest. Ten young and healthy participants will participate in the study. They will all go through a six days heat acclimation period in a heat chamber according to a valid protocol. Afterwards they will be randomly exposed to 4 conditions during four separate consecutive days.