New wearable thermoelectric cooling garment for relieving the thermal stress of body in high temperature environments

• Published in: Energy and buildings Vol. 278; p. 112600
• Main Authors: Li, Zijun, Zhang, Mengsheng, Yuan, Tianhui, Wang, Qiaoli, Hu, Pengyu, Xu, Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.01.2023
• Subjects: Ambient temperature; Exercise intensity; Inlet temperature; Thermal comfort; Thermal comfort; Exercise intensity; Ambient temperature; Inlet temperature
• ISSN: 0378-7788
• DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2022.112600

[Display omitted] •The performance of cooling garment is affected by exercise intensity and ambient temperature.•The optimum water inlet temperature to meet the cooling requirement is determined.•The key parameters to improve the cooling performance of the system are studied.•Cooling garment is effective in improving the thermal comfort of the human body. Cooling garments have gradually become one of the main ways to relieve the thermal stress of the human body. In this paper, a new type of liquid cooling garment prototype based on the principle of thermoelectric cooling is built. The human body wear experiment was carried out in a simulated high-temperature environment, and the water inlet temperature that could meet the minimum cooling requirements of the human body under different ambient temperatures and working intensities was determined. The experiment results show that exercise intensity will affect the cooling efficiency of cooling garment. The COP (coefficient of performance) of the cooling garment is 3.5, 4.1 and 4.7 respectively when the subjects were sitting still, walking and jogging. In order to meet the minimum cooling requirements of subjects performing high-intensity exercise in a high temperature environment of 40 °C, the temperature of the water inlet of the cooling garment should be kept at about 20 °C. Before and after wearing the cooling garment, the temperature in the microclimate regions decreased from 36.2 °C to 33 °C, and the relative humidity decreased from 100 % to 60 %, which proves that the cooling garment is effective in improving the thermal comfort of the human body in high temperature environment. The above experiment results provide parameter support for the intelligent regulation of liquid cooling garment in the future.