Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore the heat transfer and establish a heat transfer model of an extravehicular liquid cooling garment based on a thermal manikin covered with soft simulated skin.

The thermal manikin applied in this study was a copper manikin, typical of which was its soft simulated skin – a newly thermoplastic elastomer material. Based on this novel thermal manikin, the heat transfer analysis of an extravehicular liquid cooling garment was performed. To satisfy the practical engineering application and simplify analysis, the hypotheses were proposed, and then the heat transfer model was established by heat transfer theory, in which the heat exchange equation of the liquid cooling garment with the thermal manikin and with the air layer, and the garment's total heat dissipating capacity were derived.

The verification experiments performed in a climatic chamber by a thermal manikin wearing a liquid cooling garment at different surface temperatures of the thermal manikin show that the modeling value fits well with the experimental value, and the heat transfer model of the liquid cooling garment has a high accuracy. Meanwhile, the relationship between the heat‐dissipating capacity of the liquid cooling garment and its design parameters – inlet temperature and liquid velocity – is suggested as being based on the heat transfer model.

The paper shows that it is an effective method to control the heat‐dissipating capacity of a liquid cooling garment by changing the inlet temperature to some degree, but not by changing the liquid velocity.

Based upon numerous assertions that a garment should be developed to maximise athletes' muscle performance while maintaining freedom of movement, this paper initially discusses the development of a perfusion suit that utilises a flexible single layer cooling system, with a view to the development of a cooling garment that does not employ a conventional tubing system which can restrict movement. The stages of the development have been described in detail, and an appropriate evaluation completed for both the initially developed perfusion suit and the subsequently developed cooling garment (modified perfusion suit). From results obtained from experiments conducted using the cooling garment, which incorporates super absorbent sodium polyacrylate pads as the cooling component, the following conclusions were drawn. First, anterior thigh temperature was reduced by 4–5°C at the end of the cooling period confirming that the developed cooling garment provides effective cooling. Second, although the difference between the skin temperature of the anterior thigh when cooling is applied to that when cooling is not applied decreased during the exercise period, the difference is still significant confirming that cooling of the anterior thigh by wearing the developed cooling garment persists throughout the duration of exercise.

People working in the hot environment are constantly exposed to the overheating, that can lead to cardiovascular disorders and as a consequence result in occupational diseases. The purpose of this paper is to present developed personal liquid cooling system that is able to efficiently draw excess heat from the human organism, protecting against thermal stress.

The paper presents study concerning the assessment of effect of the coolant temperature in the developed liquid cooling garment (LCG) on physiological parameters of the subjects (heart rate, body temperature, skin temperature) and parameters of the undergarment microclimate, as well as subjective sensations reported by volunteers exercising in hot microclimate while wearing LCG and without LCG.

Obtained results of physiological parameters measurements, as well as undergarment physical parameters and volunteers subjective sensations, proved satisfactory level of thermal stress reduction while working in the aluminized protective clothing in hot environment by the developed personal liquid cooling system for the variant with coolant temperature 19°C and the flow rate 0.9 dm3/min.

This paper presents a new clothing construction intended for LCG that can efficiently support human thermoregulation processes while working in the hot environment.

Extreme hot environments are prevalent in many occupational settings, and facilities management workers are no exception. Wearing suitable cooling garment is a useful means to alleviate heat strain and improving performance at heat exposure. This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness and applicability of the cooling vest across four selected fields (i.e. construction, outdoor cleaning and horticulture, kitchen work and work involved manual handling at the airport) and identify the shortcomings of the cooling vest used by the participating workers.

This study adopted a two-phase design: a quantitative questionnaire survey followed by qualitative in-depth interviews.

A remarkable physical strain alleviation (PSA) of 21.1 per cent (14.8 per cent in construction, 18.8 per cent in horticulture and cleaning, 27.4 per cent in kitchen and catering and 26.5 per cent in airport apron service) is achieved by the use of cooling vest in four industries. Despite the success of PSA, several shortcomings of the cooling vest were identified: easily stained color, heavy weight, short cooling time, inflexibility that presents a hazard around moving equipment, lack of industry-specific design, nondurable and thick fabric with poor permeability.

The findings of the current study do not only confirm the effectiveness of the cooling vest in alleviating heat strain and physical strain but also identify the major shortcomings upon which further improvements can be made.

Examines the fifthteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

Examines the fourteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and evaluate the potential cooling contribution provided by a phase change material cooling vest as part of the total heat exchange mechanism of the body and take in to account the negative side effects of wearing the cooling garments.

In this study, the three-part system of body-garment-environment has been simulated through the finite element method and the problem of heat exchange between these three parts has been solved with the help of computer modeling.

The results of this modeling showed that a large percentage of the cooling efficiency of cooling vest was neutralized by the negative effects of the vest that are weight, lack of breathability, and the effects on the thermal conductivity of the skin. Therefore, the net efficiency of the cooling vests resulted in a lower decrease in skin temperature compared to the state that the negative side effects were not included in the model.

Cooling power obtained with the help of cooling garments have been studied in previous studies using either human tests or manikins. But, what has been addressed less in previous studies relates to the negative effects of such equipment on the comfort of body, along with their cooling effect. So it is the first time witch the effect of side effects of such equipments are studied. Also modeling the real performance of cooling garments have not been done yet.

In this paper, the thermal contact comfort of a suddenly wetted shirt and some selected mechanical parameters of ten various woven shirt fabrics were measured with the aim of determining the effect of their composition on their complex quality level. In order to explain the thermal contact comfort of superficially wetted shirts, a new parameter called moisture absorptivity was introduced and a simple equation of the moisture transfer between the fabric and skin was derived. Since the direct measurement of the moisture absorptivity is complicated, an indirect method for its experimental determination was described and used for evaluation of thermal comfort. As regards the final complex evaluation of the measured shirt fabrics, it was found that shirts containing 25‐40 per cent of classical PES fibres blended with cotton, compared with non‐treated pure cotton shirts, have shown similar or even better water vapour permeability, fairly warmer feeling in dry state, better shear, fairly better ability to keep the form and a bit lower moisture absorptivity (worse thermal contact comfort feeling in the case of superficial wetting). Moreover, thermal comfort properties may be still improved by the application of special modified PES fibres.

First responders are specialty teams who are trained to work in toxic environments to assess and diffuse the threat. They have to wear specially designed Personal Protective Ensembles (PPE) that is impermeable to liquids and gasses. Microclimate inside PPEs gets hot and humid, rapidly rendering it uncomfortable and often hazardous to work longer than 30 minutes at a time. Providing active cooling is one way to extend the time spent in PPEs. Two water-cooled prototype garments were developed at our department. This study focused on the evaluation of the prototype cooling garments using human subjects, performing simulated tasks in an environmental chamber. Both physiological and perceptual responses were considered to understand the garment's effectiveness in providing cooling relief as well as the user acceptance in terms of ease of use, comfort and perceived effectiveness. The subjects' perception of cooling relief generally agreed with the physiological data. The two prototype cooling vests positively affected skin temperatures, sweat rate, microclimate temperature, humidity, perceived temperature and perceived humidity. Both physiological and perception data indicated there were no significant and consistent differences between the two cooling vests. The subjects perceived the prototype cooling garments to provide effective cooling, to be attractive and practical overall.

Looks at the eighth published year of the ITCRR and the research, from far and near, involved in this. Muses on the fact that, though all the usual processes are to the fore, the downside part of the industry is garment making which is the least developed side. Posits that the manufacture of clothing needs to become more technologically advanced as does retailing. Closes by emphasising support for the community in all its efforts.