Abstract:

In order to provide reference for the design and optimization of electrically heated clothing in winter, a three-dimensional finite element model combined with heating units, an air layer and fabrics was established using ANSYS system. The temperature distribution in the cross section and surface of the fabrics system were simulated and analyzed under different conditions of the fabrics, the heat units and the air layer thickness. Meanwhile, the effective thermal conductivity of the air layer was introduced and its influence on the heat transfer along the plane direction and the thickness direction was also analyzed. The results show that with the increase of the fabric thermal resistance or the thickness of air layer, the heat transferring along the thickness direction is decreased gradually and the decreased gradient becomes smaller. The heat along the plane direction transfer longer distance. By dispersing the heating area, the heat transferring along the plane direction can be increased because of the longer boundaries. With the increase of the effective thermal conductivity, both the heat transferalong the plane direction and the thickness direction in the model are increased. Finally, the heat transfer simulation results were werified by experiments, the results indicate that the outside surface temperature from simulations and experiments show a good consistency, and the maximum relative error is 9.7%.

Key words: electrically heated clothing, fabrics system, fabrics system, heating unit, finite element simulation