Wearable cooling system to manage heat in protective clothing

Abstract

This paper presents the working principle of a wearable miniature cooling system investigated by us for managing heat and sweat effectively and efficiently under extreme conditions. The cooling system consists of peltier units and mini refrigerant channels incorporated in a knitted spacer structure. The knitted spacer structure absorbs sweat and accumulates it to keep the skin dry. The cold side of the peltier units absorbs heat from the skin and transfers the heat to the refrigerant, which is converted to gas by the absorption of evaporative heat. The mini refrigerant channels are connected to a high pressure liquid refrigerant cylinder and to a gas receiver via polymer tubes. The wearable cooling system was evaluated using a test rig designed to simulate the origination of human body heat and a sealed environment similar to that inside a CBRN garment. Test results show that the temperature remains constant, when the cooling system is active even though the heat energy was produced continuously. This wearable cooling system can be used to manage heat and sweat under extreme conditions.