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Design and prototype of a water circulated cooling vest to mitigate heat-related illnesses for personnel in hot and humid environments
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO
Winter 2022 MAE 156B Sponsored Project
Sponsored By:
Dr. Jose Ricardo Suarez, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Family Med And Public Health
Sponsored By:
Dr. Jose Ricardo Suarez, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Family Med And Public Health
About Dermal Cooling
About Dermal Cooling
The dermal cooling vest aims to create a cooling system that extracts heat from the user’s body to significantly decrease the risk of developing a heat related illness by circulating cold water around the user's torso. In hot and humid environments, the vest provides outdoor workers a means to mitigate their risk of developing a heat related illness such as heat stroke, heat exhaustion, and heat cramps.
Project Objectives
Project Objectives
We seek to further improve the efficiency of the cooling system of the vest.
The primary components that we worked on per request of our sponsor:
Ease manufacturability: decrease cost and labor of manufacturing process
Increase cooling capacity of the system
Final Design
Final Design
Cooling System:
To improve the cooling capacity and increase the efficiency of the vest, a refrigeration system was designed to replace the Peltier Plates used in previous iterations of the vest. The refrigeration system has a coefficient of performance (COP) of about 3.5 which is nearly double that of the Peltier Plates. Additionally, the refrigeration system Is a much stronger cooling system and has a capacity of 451W.
Water Circulation Method:
Further Improvements to the vest came from the transition to a bladder system from the previous tubing circulation system previously used. The large bladders increase the surface area that is contact with the body and decrease the time intensive manufacturing process of the tube system.
Old Prototype
Current Prototype
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