Date of Award

2005

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.Sc.

Department

Mechanical, Automotive, and Materials Engineering

Keywords

Engineering, Mechanical.

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

The contact between the hand and a cold surface causes a sudden cooling of the hand that leads to discomfort and in most extreme cases to pain or cold injury. The cooling of the hand in contact with a cold material surface is governed by several physiological parameters and environmental factors. Some of the parameters that affect the hand cooling process are the surface temperatures of materials and the skin, physical properties of the material and the skin tissues, the contact surface area, the contact pressure, body core temperature and the average skin temperature. The physical properties of the material and skin tissues can be viewed as the conductivities, specific heat capacities and the densities of each category. There are two distinct methods of determining the hand temperatures or the cooling rates of the hand due to touching cold surfaces. The most logical and easily adaptable method to analyse the hand cooling phenomenon is by using a thermoregulatory model that represents the human hand. The alternative approach will be to estimate the hand temperature using experimental methods. The aim of this thesis is to develop a numerical model that can be employed to simulate the hand cooling due to touching cold materials. For this purpose the empirical relationships developed by Lotens to represent the blood flow rates of the hand is considered as the foundation. The developed model shows good agreement with the experimental cooling curves. The long time and short time experimental hand cooling curves due to touching various materials at different temperatures are used to validate the model. The method of sensitivity analysis is used to investigate the impact of each input parameter on the output of the model.Dept. of Mechanical, Automotive, and Materials Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2005 .W35. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-01, page: 0460. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2005.

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