Evaluation of Phase Change Materials for Personal Cooling Applications
Lennart P.J. Teunissen (TU Delft - Sustainable Design Engineering, TU Delft - Materializing Futures)
E.S. Janssen (Student TU Delft)
J. Schootstra (Student TU Delft)
L. Plaude (TU Delft - Sustainable Design Engineering, TU Delft - Materializing Futures)
K.M.B. Jansen (TU Delft - Materializing Futures, TU Delft - Sustainable Design Engineering)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
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.