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What led you to your topic (process of narrowing & the gap)?
What led you to your topic (process of narrowing & the gap)?
My Initial guiding research goal was to find out which gloves may be better for protection from the cold. I began studying this topic and it became clear very quickly that methodologies that are used in scientific research to study this are very costly and require access to equipment that I would not be able to get my hands on. Because of this I pivoted to studying the materials that are often used in gloves and found that study in this field had methods that were still complicated, but feasible. At first I was hesitant because I was worried that there may not be a sufficient amount of research on the topic but I found a substantial amount of it, and also many studies used a methodology similar to mine so I knew that if I could do it, then my study would easily fit in with the rest. I used search terms regarding materials like down, primaloft, climashield, and thinsulate to find studies about similar insulators. I used search terms about thermal conductivity and resistance to find papers on my methodology, and I also studied the use of similar techniques in other fields. This molded my question into a comparison between thermal conductivity or resistance of different insulators used in winter outwear (Primaloft, Down, Thinsulate, Climashield). Down is natural and the rest are synthetic. I was considering using wool as well but that has been better studied and many of these fabrics required intense shipping costs so I tried to keep my budget down by using just these 4.
How has previous research helped in the development of your topic?
How has previous research helped in the development of your topic?
Previous research has substantially helped the development of my topic with some studies like Laboratory evaluation of two new high-performance polyester batting insulation materials sponsored by the US Army providing direct comparisons between some synthetic insulators with down. Despite this, a gap remains because many of these synthetics are not directly compared, and this particular study came out in 1990. This particular study studies PrimaLoft, while other studies like How High-Loft Textile Thermal Insulation Properties Depend on Compressibility compare PrimaLoft and ClimaShield. These studies have provided me with a base of information which tells me that synthetic insulators will not perform quite as well as down, but lack in the sense that they are either very old or do not draw direct comparison to down specifically. The image below provides the 1990 study's comparison between insulators by density.
What is your plan to collect data (methodology)?
What is your plan to collect data (methodology)?
Methodology will be modeled after ASTM C518, which is often used in other fields. Similar methodologies are often conducted in studies in the fields such as How High-Loft Textile Thermal Insulation Properties Depend on Compressibility from the Autex Research Journal. This study specifically provides this graphic of how this methodology works, shown below. Of course, their study was performed with high-grade research equipment but there are methods to mitigate many of the risks associated with using more mundane equipment. I will need a heat plate, which will produce a steady temperature. I will need two thermistors; in this study they used thermocouples but generally for lower temperatures thermistors are more accurate and more easily obtainable for me. Because I am using these I will need to calibrate them using a digital multimeter, which shouldn’t take long at all but I will need one of these as well. Additionally I will need my material itself, which I will have listed in my budget sheet. In order to enclose this system I will use a styrofoam freezer box to ensure that the flow of energy is going one way. On the top of the sample I will need a sensor of heat flux because the equation for thermal resistance requires a measurement of heat flux. Finally, in order to reach equilibrium between both sides of the experiment, that is the hot plate and the controlled temperature side, I will use a container of ice water, and ideally I will be able to do this somewhere where I can get enough air circulation that the heat from the hot plate doesn’t affect the top part of the system too much. From the sensors, I will collect the temperature at equilibrium from the thermistors and the measure of heat flux and plug it into the equation R = ΔTq where R is thermal resistance. The most difficult part of my study will be reaching thermal equilibrium because it could take some time for the area around the hot plate to reach its temperature and also could take some time for the other side to cool down when my only real method is air conditioning or use of ice water. In order to speed up this process I could cut down the size of my freezer box. I can also compare my materials using the same test when they are wet or under compression because of the known difference in effect depending on material. The image below comes from How High-Loft Textile Thermal Insulation Properties Depend on Compressibility.
Why should we care about this topic (relevance)?
Why should we care about this topic (relevance)?
This topic is relevant because protection from the cold is and always has been key to human comfort. More "Specifically, thermal insulation in clothing is an important parameter of thermal comfort"(Oğulata, 2007). Additionally, in recent years climate change has resulted in an observed "increase in [winter] storm activity after 1970"(Francis, 1998). With this increase in winter storm activity, thermal insulation in clothing will become increasingly important to the people affected by it. With colder temperatures, thermal resistivity of these insulators may become more of a concern for the consumer as opposed to other characteristics like weight. I hope that my study can provide more information regarding thermal resistivity for future generations who may need more temperature resistive winter gear.
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