Abstract
As thermal protection substrates for wearable electronics, functional soft composites made of polymer materials embedded with phase change materials and metal layers demonstrate unique capabilities for the thermal protection of human skin. Here, we develop an analytical transient phase change heat transfer model to investigate the thermal performance of a wearable electronic device with a thermal protection substrate. The model is validated by experiments and the finite element analysis (FEA). The effects of the substrate structure size and heat source power input on the temperature management efficiency are investigated systematically and comprehensively. The results show that the objective of thermal management for wearable electronics is achieved by the following thermal protection mechanism. The metal thin film helps to dissipate heat along the in-plane direction by reconfiguring the direction of heat flow, while the phase change material assimilates excessive heat. These results will not only promote the fundamental understanding of the thermal properties of wearable electronics incorporating thermal protection substrates, but also facilitate the rational design of thermal protection substrates for wearable electronics.
Highlights
Recent advances in mechanical design[1,2,3,4] and advanced manufacturing techniques[5,6,7,8] have enabled the development of high-performance wearable electronics by integrating inorganic functional materials onto soft polymer substrates
An alternative strategy combining the heat flux manipulation and effective excessive heat assimilation by a functional soft composite was reported[30]. This novel functional composite is composed of a paraffin phase change material layer below the Cu metal foil layer with both layers encapsulated by flexible polymer materials
The cooling efficiency is relatively high at the high input powers and short heating durations that exist when short circuits occur. These results show that the thermal protection substrate has excellent temperature management ability for wearable electronics, especially when short circuits occur and a large amount of heat is generated within a short time
Summary
Recent advances in mechanical design[1,2,3,4] and advanced manufacturing techniques[5,6,7,8] have enabled the development of high-performance wearable electronics by integrating inorganic functional materials onto soft polymer substrates. An alternative strategy combining the heat flux manipulation and effective excessive heat assimilation by a functional soft composite was reported[30] This novel functional composite is composed of a paraffin phase change material layer below the Cu metal foil layer with both layers encapsulated by flexible polymer materials. The underlying thermal management mechanism of heat flux direction reconfiguration and excess heat assimilation via the phase change process has been investigated both experimentally and numerically[30], an analytical model is critically required to better understand the thermal behavior of the thermal protection substrate and offer guidance for the optimal design of the substrate.
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