| Title: |
Personal Cooling for Extreme Environments |
| Category: |
Industry |
| Intellectual Property: |
Student team assigns intellectual property control to company |
| Year: |
2009 |
| Semester: |
Fall |
| Sponsor Name: |
Paragon Space Development Corporation |
| Sponsoring advisors: |
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| Sponsor URL: |
http://www.ParagonSDC.com |
| Sponsor Information: |
Paragon is a multidisciplinary engineering research, development and production firm that specializes in life support systems and environmental control in extreme environments. Paragon has current work on the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle for NASA building radiators and plumbing for that vehicle and for the US Navy manufacturing contaminated water diving systems. Paragon is a disciplined, thorough and innovative company (we won the "Arizona Governor's Innovation Prize" in 2007) that believes in Engineering Excellence. |
| ITAR Restriction: |
No |
| Scope of work: |
The students will design, build and test a personal cooling apparatus that utilizes Liquid Carbon dioxide as a cooling agent. Preliminary Requirements areL
1) The warmed CO2 must be exhausted away from the head.
2) Provide cooing for 1 hour at a rate of 300W in am ambient environment at 100F.
3) Provide a peak cooling of 600W for 15 minutes.
4) Allow for control from 0 to 600W of cooling (e.g. must be able to turn off.)
5) No less than 38F temperature at skin of wearer
6) Easy for on person to don and doff unassisted.
7) Ability to refill within 10 minutes from a liquid CO2 tank.
8) Indication of low coolant 5-10 minutes prior to running out of coolant when operating at 300W
9) Must fit under other protective gear (which can be removed for refill)
10) Usable in a gravity environment from lunar (0.17g) to full Earth Sea Level gravity (1g).
11) Able to withstand temperature extremes of up to 150F outside temperature.
Specific items that will need to be addressed are:
1) The students will do research to determine the critical places on the human body to provide cooling.
2) Design and build a "garment" that places the cooling at that location.
3) Provide for CO2 storage that is safe
4) Design and build an efficient system for extracting heat from the user and utilizing the cooling provide by expanding CO2 to absorb that heat.
5) Provide for sufficient movement of the wearer such that they can still perform duties such as carrying personnel, equipment and to maintain the ability to be aware of their surroundings (e.g. the system cannot unacceptably restrict movement.
Deliverable items shall be:
1) A complete prototype that demonstrates the ability to perform the functions specified.
2) Sufficient calculations to show that the unit is:
a) Safe to wear
b) Will meet the requirements specified
3) Engineering computer models, analysis and drawings as needed to describe the system geometrically and operationally.
4) All design review required items. |
| Project summary: |
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| Disciplines: |
Mechanical Engineering (3)
Electrical Engineering (1)
Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (1) |
| Skills: |
Understanding of human physiology. (athlete?)
Understands safety analysis
Understands or can learn failure modes analysis
Safety awareness due to utilization of CO2. |
| Additional resources: |
Paragon can provide laboratory space if working with CO2 is a problem on campus. |
| Key Contact Name: |
Christie Iacomini |
| Key Contact Email: |
CIacomini@ParagonSDC.com |
| Key Contact Phone: |
520 903 1000 |
| Project URL: |
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| Mentor Name: |
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| Mentor Email: |
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| Mentor Phone: |
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