Evaporative Personal Cooling with Wicking Airflow and Spill Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing personal cooling devices, such as misting devices, often dampen clothing and fog up glasses due to water droplets, limiting their effectiveness and comfort during outdoor activities in hot weather.
Innovation Solution
A portable evaporative cooling device with a container for retaining liquid, a wicking material, and a fan that draws air through apertures to cool it, combined with a funnel to capture spilled liquid and direct it back into the container, allowing for comfortable wear around the neck or on a backpack.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If misting devices are used for cooling, then cooling effect is achieved, but water droplets dampen clothes and fog up glasses
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the harmful water droplets from the cooling process by using evaporative cooling through wicking material instead of misting. The water is contained within the wicking material structure and evaporates without forming free droplets that could dampen clothes or fog glasses.
Solution Approach 2:
The wicking material acts as an intermediary between the water reservoir and the air flow. It controls water distribution through capillary action, allowing evaporation to occur at the air interface without releasing free water droplets into the environment.
2Duration of action of moving object
If container size is increased to provide longer cooling duration, then cooling duration is extended, but device becomes less portable and heavier
Solution Approach 1:
The device allows dynamic adjustment of water volume based on user needs. Users can fill the container to different levels depending on the expected duration of use, allowing optimization between cooling duration and portability for different situations.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the parameter of water volume from a fixed value to a variable parameter that can be adjusted by the user. This allows the same device structure to provide different cooling durations without requiring multiple device configurations.
3Productivity
If fan power is increased to improve air flow, then cooling efficiency is improved, but device complexity and power consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The air flow function is segmented into multiple small apertures distributed around the container. This distributes the airflow task across many small openings rather than requiring a single high-power fan, reducing overall device complexity and power consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The device uses multiple small apertures providing partial airflow paths rather than a single high-capacity flow path. This distributed approach achieves sufficient cooling through cumulative effect of multiple small streams without requiring excessive fan power.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The device provides a flow of cool air, increasing comfort during outdoor activities by effectively evaporative cooling while minimizing water spillage and weight, allowing for extended use in hot conditions.
Implementation Method 1
a wicking material and a fan to draw air into the container through a plurality of apertures to produce a flow of cool air. Air drawn into the container through the apertures flows through the wicking material
Implementation Method 2
Air drawn into the container through the apertures flows through the wicking material and is cooled by evaporative cooling
Data Source
AI summary
A personal cooling device utilizes a portable container for retaining a liquid that is wicked into a wicking, material and a fan to draw air into the container through a plurality of apertures to produce a flow of cool air. Air drawn into the container through the apertures flows through the wicking material and is cooled by evaporative cooling. The air then flows out of the top of the container and through the air moving device. A funnel is configured around the outer perimeter of the container to capture any liquid that spills out of the apertures and direct it back into the container. A battery pack may be coupled to the air moving device by an extension cable for storing the battery pack in a more convenient location, such as on a belt.