scholarly journals Cooling of Motorcycle Helment Using Phase Change Material

Author(s):  
S. Vaitheeswaran ◽  
C. Suresh Kumar ◽  
S. Santhosh ◽  
S. Sathish Kumar

Human life is so precious and valuable, that it should not be compromised under any cost. In a latest survey, it is mentioned that nearly 62% of mortality in road accidents occur due to head injury, where the rider has not worn a helmet. It is not that people are very negligent about their lives on road, but that they experience dozens of discomforts by wearing helmets. But the most common discomfort is that, heavy sweat occurs due to excessive heat formation. This project mainly focuses on absorbing this heat produced inside the helmet. To achieve this, a suitable Phase change material (HS 22) is encapsulated inside an aluminium packet. Also 6 holes of 6mm diameter are drilled on the front and rear sides of helmet. This allows fresh air (reaction air coming opposite to riding direction) to continuously flow in and out of the helmet so that the heat produced in the helmet is instantaneously tapped out. During summer season, the inlet air itself will be hot which will be absorbed by the PCM. The PCM fuses taking its latent heat of fusion from the packet surface and cools it. Thus continuous cooling is achieved till the entire PCM fuses. After the ride, the PCM rejects the heat and again solidifies. Factors like position of PCM in the helmet, volume, latent heat of fusion, etc. are carefully adjusted to achieve effective forced convective heat transfer and thus cooling for a minimum drive of 1.5 hours at an utmost ambient temperature of 450C. This ventilation system is practically feasible, very economical and will surely promote the riders to wear helmets. This project has been successfully completed as our 3rd year project.

2018 ◽  
Vol 130 ◽  
pp. 1590-1597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jotham Muthoka Munyalo ◽  
Xuelai Zhang ◽  
Yuyang Li ◽  
Yue Chen ◽  
Xiaofeng Xu

Author(s):  
Dominic Groulx ◽  
Wilson Ogoh

One way of storing thermal energy is through the use of latent heat energy storage systems. One such system, composed of a cylindrical container filled with paraffin wax, through which a copper pipe carrying hot water is inserted, is presented in this paper. It is shown that the physical processes encountered in the flow of water, the heat transfer by conduction and convection, and the phase change behavior of the phase change material can be modeled numerically using the finite element method. Only charging (melting) is treated in this paper. The appearance and the behavior of the melting front can be simulated by modifying the specific heat of the PCM to account for the increased amount of energy, in the form of latent heat of fusion, needed to melt the PCM over its melting temperature range. The effects of adding fins to the system are also studied, as well as the effects of the water inlet velocity.


e-Polymers ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ai Yafei ◽  
Jin Yong ◽  
Sun Jing ◽  
Wei Deqing

AbstractIn this study, suspension polymerization is described to fabricate microcapsules containing n-hexadecane as phase change material. In the suspension polymerization, casein is employed as emulsifier and stabilizer instead of synthetic surfactant. Microcapsules with polystyrene as shell and n-hexadecane as core have an average diameter of 3~15μm and the size distribution are narrow. Thermal properties are investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) showing that the microcapsules can store and release an amount of latent heat over a temperature range nearing the melting point of pure n-hexadecane. The latent heat of fusion of microencapsulated n-hexadecane decreases after microencapsulation. The melting point of microencapsulated n-hexadecane is near but higher than that of pure n-hexadecane, and the polymerization time has little effect on the melting point.


Author(s):  
Alexandre Lamoureux ◽  
B. Rabi Baliga

An experimental investigation of steady, laminar, fluid flow and heat transfer in a vertical closed-loop thermosyphon operating with slurries of a microencapsulated phase-change material (MCPCM) suspended in distilled water is presented. The MCPCM particles consisted of a solid-liquid phase-change material (PCM) encapsulated in a thin polymer resin shell. Their effective diameter was in the range 0.5 to 12.5 micrometers, and had a mean value of 2.5 micrometers. The melting and freezing characteristics and the latent heat of fusion of the PCM were determined using a differential scanning calorimeter. The effective density of the MCPCM was measured, and the effective thermal conductivity of the slurries was determined using a published correlation. In the range of parameters considered, it was determined that the slurries exhibit non-Newtonian behavior. The closed-loop thermosyphon consisted of two vertical straight pipes, joined together by two vertical semi-circular 180-degree bends made of the same pipe. An essentially constant heat flux was imposed on a portion of one of the vertical pipes. The wall temperature of a portion of the other vertical pipe was maintained at a constant value. The outer surfaces of the entire thermosyphon were very well insulated. Calibrated thermocouples were used to measure the outer-wall-surface temperature at numerous points over the heated portion and the bulk temperature of the slurry at four different locations. A special procedure was formulated, benchmarked, and used to deduce the mass flow rate of the slurries in the thermosyphon. The investigation was conducted with slurries of MCPCM mass concentration 0% (pure distilled water), 7.471%, 9.997%, 12.49%, 14.95%, and 17.5%. The results are presented and discussed.


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