Open AccessHeat exchanger based on paraffin/expanded graphite composites for breathing air cooling in fire
Author(s) -
You Lv,
Jie Xiao,
Yawen Huang,
Xinyue Jiang,
Yuan Zhu
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of physics. conference series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.21
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1742-6596
pISSN - 1742-6588
DOI - 10.1088/1742-6596/2116/1/012094
Subject(s) - materials science , composite material , heat exchanger , graphite , composite number , mechanical engineering , engineering
The enormous amount of heat in fires can push inhalation temperature to ~500 K, which is fatal to the civilians. However, conventional rescue respirators are unable to control the breathing air temperature. In this work, we utilized paraffin/expanded graphite (EG) composites to construct a heat exchanger for breathing air cooling. The material itself can be used as the mechanical support, the heat spreader and the heat absorber at the same time. The composites of 0~35 wt% EG were prepared and characterized. The results showed the paraffin was uniformly absorbed in the porous structures of EG. And the paraffin/EG composite with 25 wt% EG has better performance both in simulation and experiment. The heat exchanger constructed by this composite shows good cooling efficiency by cooling the inlet air from 500 K to a breathable 313 K and sustaining for more than 20 minutes.