Numerical investigation of heat transfer in a garment convective cooling system

• Published in: Fashion and textiles Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 1 - 14
• Main Authors: Zhang, Yijie, Jia, Juhong, Guo, Ziyi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Springer Singapore 15-01-2022; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen; 한국의류학회
• Subjects: Air flow; Air gaps; Business and Management; CFD; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Clothing microclimates; Computational fluid dynamics; Convective heat transfer; Cooling effects; Cooling systems; Environment; Flow resistance; Garments; Heat flux; Heat loss; Heat transfer; Human thermal comfort; Life Sciences; Magnetism; Microclimate; Textile Engineering; Thermal comfort; Three dimensional analysis; Three dimensional models; Wearable cooling system; 생활과학; Convective heat transfer; CFD; Clothing microclimates; Human thermal comfort; Wearable cooling system
• ISSN: 2198-0802; 2198-0802
• DOI: 10.1186/s40691-021-00276-3

A personal microclimate management system is designed to maintain thermal comfort which allows people to overcome a harsh environment. It consists of several micro-fans placed in the garment side seam to provide cooling air. The computational fluid dynamics method was used to simulate the three-dimensional model and analysis the influence of fan’s number and air gap distance. The obtained results depict that the introduced cool airflow will find its way along paths with flow resistance minimized and exhaust through several separated exit. The body heat flux is taken away at the same time. The convection effect is enhanced by the increase in the fans’ numbers, but the fans’ cooling effect varies a lot because of various air gap distances. When the air gap is small enough, the cooling air impact the body surface directly and causes fierce heat loss. While the air gap distance is large enough, the heat transfer along the skin surface could be enhanced by the eddy flow which is existed in the air gap between body and garment. These phenomena can maintain the body’s thermal comfort in a suitable range.