THERMAL SCIENCE

International Scientific Journal

Authors of this Paper

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Sai Cheong Fok

,

Fock-Lai Tan

,

Chong Chai Sua

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS ON THE COOLING OF A MOTORCYCLE HELMET WITH PHASE CHANGE MATERIAL (PCM)

ABSTRACT
The thermal comfort of motorcycle helmet during hot weather is important as it can affect the physiological and psychological condition of the rider. This paper examines the use of phase change material (PCM) to cool a motorcycle helmet and presents the experimental investigations on the influences of the simulated solar radiation, wind speed, and heat generation rate on the cooling system. The result shows that the PCM-cooled helmet is able to prolong the thermal comfort period compared to a normal helmet. The findings also indicate that the heat generation from the head is the predominant factor that will affect the PCM melting time. Simulated solar radiation and ram-air due to vehicle motion under adiabatic condition can have very little influences on the PCM melting time. The results suggested that the helmet usage time would be influenced by the amount of heat generated from the head. Some major design considerations based on these findings have been included. Although this investigation focuses on the cooling of a motorcyclist helmet, the findings would also be useful for the development of PCM-cooling systems in other applications.
KEYWORDS
phase change material, cooling helmet, thermal comfort
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2010-06-27
PAPER REVISED: 2011-02-21
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2011-03-25
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI100627027F
CITATION EXPORT: view in browser or download as text file
THERMAL SCIENCE YEAR 2011, VOLUME 15, ISSUE Issue 3, PAGES [807 - 816]
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Experimental investigations on the cooling of a motorcycle helmet with phase change material (PCM)

© 2024 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia. Published by the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International licence