Carbon Comforts: The Next Frontier in Thermotherapy Yarns

Abstract

Thermotherapy is a therapeutic approach aimed at alleviating pain, reducing inflammation, and facilitating the wound-healing process through the controlled administration of heat via diverse methodologies. In addition to conventional hot packs and warm water compresses, a myriad of alternative heat modalities is available for therapeutic purposes. Carbon yarn is a nanofiber material that has low density high strength-to-weight ratio. The microscopic crystals of carbon bonded together in an alignment of parallel to the axis. The carbon has unique characteristics of heat resistance and electric conductivity that makes another added use of carbon yarn for thermal therapy for relieve of pain and certain inflammations by allowing the free flow of blood at the applied area. Thus, carbon also has different grades of yarn with differences in their properties and behavior on which our studies have performed for best grade selection. Carbon yarn of 12k and 24k of different lengths have undergone test for their performance. Given the equivalence in functional characteristics between electrical and thermal conductivity, our material selection approach places paramount importance on factors such as electrical efficiency and resistance to high temperatures. This meticulous consideration ensures the creation of an unparalleled and exemplary thermal therapy product. The test outcomes for these carbon yarn samples under various power supply settings have yielded divergent results, yet a notable trend emerges an accelerated heating rate with an increase in current (Amp) while maintaining a constant voltage. The temperature at constant voltage remains the same with the fluctuations of ± 2॰C/min. The objective is to identify a material characterized by minimal electricity consumption and concurrent high-temperature release. Another remarkable attribute of this material is its exceptional ability to rapidly cool to room temperature upon the removal of the power supply. The heat transfer mechanisms, both convective and radiative, exhibited a diminishing trend as the length and number of tows of the simulated carbon fibre electric heating wire increased. Particularly noteworthy was the substantial dominance of convective heat transfer over radiative heat transfer, unequivocally highlighting convective heat transfer as the primary mode for dissipating heat in the carbon fibre electric heating wire.