TY - JOUR
T1 - Evaluation of Phase Change Materials for Personal Cooling Applications
AU - Teunissen, Lennart
AU - Janssen, Emiel
AU - Schootstra, Joost
AU - Plaude, Linda
AU - Jansen, Kaspar
N1 - Accepted Author Manuscript
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Eleven phase change materials (PCMs) for cooling humans in heat-stressed conditions were evaluated for their cooling characteristics. Effects of packaging material and segmentation were also investigated. Sample packs with a different type PCM (water- and oil-based PCMs, cooling gels, inorganic salts) or different packaging (aluminum, TPU, TPU + neoprene) were investigated on a hotplate. Cooling capacity, duration, and power were determined. Secondly, a PCM pack with hexagon compartments was compared to an unsegmented version with similar content. Cooling power decreased whereas cooling duration increased with increasing melting temperature. The water-based PCMs showed a >2x higher cooling power than other PCMs, but were relatively short-lived. The flexible gels and salts did not demonstrate a phase change plateau in cooling power, compromising their cooling potential. Using a TPU or aluminum packaging was indifferent. Adding neoprene considerably extended cooling duration, while decreasing power. Segmentation has practical benefits, but substantially lowered contact area and therefore cooling power.
AB - Eleven phase change materials (PCMs) for cooling humans in heat-stressed conditions were evaluated for their cooling characteristics. Effects of packaging material and segmentation were also investigated. Sample packs with a different type PCM (water- and oil-based PCMs, cooling gels, inorganic salts) or different packaging (aluminum, TPU, TPU + neoprene) were investigated on a hotplate. Cooling capacity, duration, and power were determined. Secondly, a PCM pack with hexagon compartments was compared to an unsegmented version with similar content. Cooling power decreased whereas cooling duration increased with increasing melting temperature. The water-based PCMs showed a >2x higher cooling power than other PCMs, but were relatively short-lived. The flexible gels and salts did not demonstrate a phase change plateau in cooling power, compromising their cooling potential. Using a TPU or aluminum packaging was indifferent. Adding neoprene considerably extended cooling duration, while decreasing power. Segmentation has practical benefits, but substantially lowered contact area and therefore cooling power.
KW - cooling garment
KW - cooling power
KW - hotplate
KW - PCM
KW - phase change material
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118551551&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0887302X211053007
DO - 10.1177/0887302X211053007
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85118551551
SN - 0887-302X
VL - 41
SP - 208
EP - 224
JO - Clothing and Textiles Research Journal
JF - Clothing and Textiles Research Journal
IS - 3
ER -