COOLING OF MOTORCYCLIST HELMET WITH

THERMOELECTRIC MODULE
NITHIN S M 1JV13ME033
PRASHANTH K P 1JV13ME035
SANDESH H N 1JV13ME044
RAJASHEKARAMURTHY A L 1JV13ME038

Under the guidance of

YOGESH GOWDA B N
Associate Professor
Mechanical Department
 Content
1. Objectives
2. What is thermoelectric cooling
3. Principle of cooling
4. Principle of operation
5. Thermoelectric material
6. Why are TE coolers used for cooling ?
7. Literature review
8. User of survey of helmet
9. Materials and methodology
10. Over view of helmet
11. Design of heat sink
12. Simulation of heat sink
13. Performance of peltier module
14. Variation of temperature VS time
15. Conclusion
16. Recommendations for future work
Objectives

 To carry out a survey on the existing helmet and to collect the user opinion and
views on the current helmet.
 To develop a cooling system to provide thermal comfort inside the helmet for
riders using ‘Thermoelectric principle’.
 To test the helmet with cooling system in static as well as moving condition and
to record the temperature change inside the helmet.
 What is thermoelectric cooling

• A thermoelectric cooling is the process of

removing thermal energy from a medium, device
or component by applying a voltage of constant
polarity to a junction between dissimilar electric
conductors or semiconductors

Thermoelectric cooler
 Principle of working

• Peltier Effect- when a voltage or DC current is

applied to two dissimilar conductors, a circuit can be
created that allows for continuous heat transport between
the conductor’s junctions. The Seebeck Effect- is the
reverse of the Peltier Effect. By applying heat to two
different conductors a current can be generated.
• Heat transfer occurs in the direction of charge carrier
movement.
 Principle of operation

Thermoelectric coolers operate by the Peltier effect. The device has two sides, and when a DC electric
current flows through the device, it brings heat from one side to the other, so that one side gets cooler
while the other gets hotter.
 Thermoelectric Materials

• Semiconductors are the optimum choice of material to

sandwich between two metal conductors because of the
ability to control the semiconductors’ charge carriers, as
well as, increase the heat pumping ability.

• Alternative materials include:

• Alternating thin film layers of antimoniy telluride and
bismuth telluride.
• Lead telluride and its alloys
• Silicon germanium.
• Materials based on nanotechnology
 Why are TE Coolers Used for Cooling?
• No moving parts make them very reliable.
• Ideal when precise temperature control is required.
• Ability to lower temperature below ambient.
• Heat transport controlled by current input.
• Able to operate in any orientation.
• Compact size make them useful for applications where size or weight is a
constraint.
• Ability to alternate between heating and cooling.
 Literature Review
• DebarshiGangopadhyay, Mohd. Salman Mohd. Yaqub,Designed the thermoelectric Air cooling &
heating system and built, This report explains the cooling system is capable of cooling & heating
the air when re circulating the air with the help of blower.
• Chakib Alaoui Developed the model to simulate the transient state for a Peltier thermoelectric
module. refrigeration chamber that uses Peltier modules was designed and fabricated.
• Toh Yen Pang, AhamedNazly Shammas., Conducted the experiment on various types of helmets
and results showed that by forced convection conditions, extra vent holes allowed more air flow
through the helmet and improved air circulation to maintain minimum temperature range.
• Richard j. Buist and Gary D. Streitwieser., Studied that the A thermoelectric electric cooling system
this report explains how heat is to be reduced efficiently by peltier module by supplying voltage
and current to it.
• Carpenter projected that temperature in the helmet during such riding reaches up to 38°C.In this
temperature; it is very hazardous to travel due to a reduction in the ability to concentrate.
Therefore, keeping a bike rider cool during transit has been at the forefront of helmet design
considerations.
 USER SURVEY OF THE HELMET
User survey has been carried out to study the comfort level in the existing helmet.
The following questions were asked to the users.

A survey on motocyclist helmet

FELT THERMAL DISCOMFORTNESS(HOTNESS) 13

Parameters

PREFERED HELMET TO BE COMFORT OVER STYLISHNESS 14

VOTED FOR COOLING SYSTEM 11

NOT CONCERNED ABOUT WEIGHT 14

0 5 10 15
No of people
 MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY

Peltier Device Cooling chamber with Peltier module

DC current max: 6amps

Max temperature difference: 70ºc
Size: 31.5x30x3.15 mm
Minimum operating temperature: -10º
Max operating temperature: 100º
Electric fans as an air pump
Heat sink

Material: aluminum
Thermal resistance :0.4ºc/w
Density: 2707 kg/m³
Thermal conductivity: 170 w/mk
Over view of helmet
 Working principle of cooling system circuit

Contents
• Temperature sensor senses the
temperature.
• Temperature indicator indicates the
temperature inside the helmet.
• When helmet chamber temperature
falls below 25º(chosen), power
supply to the peltier module cut-off.
• If chamber temperature crosses 25º
micro controller passes signal to
relay, power starts supply to pelteir
device.
 Design Methodology of Peltier module & Heat sink

Chein and Huang (1994) suggest the following method

to design and analyze a TE cooler with a heat sink.
1. Calculations of total heat load, all the heat loads are to be
taken in account. Let the heat loads be as describe below. The
heat loads are expressed in watts.
2. Defining the temperature of hot and cold side.
3. Determining the number of stages required.
4. After this an appropriate TEC is selected or designed.
5. Determine thermal resistance of heat sink based on which
material for heat sink to be selected.
 Design of heat sink
Pe=electrical output
Qc =Heat absorbed by cold side of TEC (W)
Qh=amount of heat dissipated at heat side of TEC (W)
R =Thermal resistance (k/w)
Tc =cold side temperature (°c)
Th=Heat side temperature (°c)
T∞=ambient temperature (°c)
∆T=Temperature difference (k)
v=velocity of air (m/s)
QC=m cp ∆T
m=ρQ
ρ =1.164 kg/m3
A = π*r2
= π *0.006*0.006 =1.13*10-4 m2
Q =V*A
=2.5*1.13*10-4 =2.827*10-4 m3/s
M = ρ*Q
=1.164*2.827*10-4=3.29*10-4 kg/sec
Cp =1007 J/kg k (30°c)
∆T = 32-19= 13 T∞=32°c

Qc =m*cp*∆T
=3.29*10-4 *1007*13
=4.31 W
PC =V*I
=12*2=24W
Q h = Q C + PC
=24+4.31=29 W
Qh = (Th-T∞)/R
R = (44-32)/29
=0.41C/W
 Simulation of heat sink
Simulation of side cross section of aluminium heat sink is shown in below fig.
At base of heat sink reference temperature is given and surface of fins are
constrained with atmospheric boundary conditions. After processing model
temperature distributes along the fins.
Performance of Peltier Module

TIME (sec) Cold temp Hot temp

10 26 26
20 26.5 34
30 25.2 36
40 24.5 36.5
50 23 37
60 22.1 38
70 21.3 39
80 21.1 40
90 21 40.5
100 19 41
 Variation of Temperature vs Time
Variation of cold side temperature Variation of hot side temperature
30 45

40
25
35

20 30
Temperature in oc

Temperature in oc
25
15
20

10 15

10
5
5

0
0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Time in sec
Time in sec
 Under static condition

Sl no Time in (min:sec) Temperature in °c temp(°c) v/s time(sec)

1 Initial condition(00:00) 43 44

2 00:20 43 43

3 00:40 43 42

4 01:00 42.5
41

temperature(°c)
5 01:20 41
40
6 01:40 39
39
7 02:00 39
38
8 02:20 38
37
9 02:40 37.5
36
10 03:00 37.5
0 50 100 150 200 250

11 03:20 37 time(s)
 • The observation for the moving condition recorded by the digital temperature display
is as follows (40km/hr)

Reading Time in (min:sec) Temperature in °c temp(°c) v/s time(sec)

50
no
1 Initial condition(00:00) 44 45

2 00:20 42.3 40

3 00:40 41.3
35
4 01:00 39
30

temperature(°c)
5 01:20 38.6
6 01:40 37.9 25
temp(°c)
7 02:00 37.1 20

8 02:20 36.5
15
9 02:40 35.9
10
10 03:00 35.2
11 03:20 34.6 5

12 03:40 34 0
0 50 100 150 200 250
13 04:00 33.6
time(s)
14 04:20 33.6
• The observation for the moving condition recorded by the digital temperature display
is as follows (60km/hr)

Reading Time in (min:sec) Temperature in °c temperature(°c) v/s time(s)

no 50

1 Initial condition(00:00) 44 45

2 00:20 42.7 40
3 00:40 42.3
35
4 01:00 41.3

temperature(°c)
30
5 01:20 39.5
6 01:40 39.3 25
temp(° C)
7 02:00 38 20

8 02:20 37.3
15
9 02:40 37.3
10
10 03:00 35.7
5
11 03:20 35.7
12 03:40 33.3 0
0 50 100 150 200 250
13 04:00 33.3 time (sec)
14 04:20 33.3
• The observation for the moving condition recorded by the digital temperature display
is as follows (80km/hr)

temperature(°c) v/s time(sec)

Reading Time in (min:sec) Temperature in °c 50

no 45

1 Initial condition(00:00) 44 40

2 00:20 42.3
35
3 00:40 41.5

temperature(°c)
30
4 01:00 39.7
5 01:20 38.5 25

6 01:40 37.3 20
7 02:00 36.2
15
8 02:20 35.2
10
9 02:40 33.5
10 03:00 33.3 5

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
time(sec)
 Conclusion
• The prototyping of a cooling system based on thermoelectricity for a
motorcyclist helmet has been done and tested in both static and moving
condition successfully.
• The variation of temp at different speeds of motorcycle viz.
40,60,80km/hr with respect to time has been recorded and the graph of
temp vs time is plotted.
• From the graphs it can be seen that the desired temp reduction of 70 to
80c is achieved with in 3 to 4 minutes.
• We can conclude that this can be very effective especially for people
living in high temperature zones.
 Recommendations for future work

• Structural analysis can be carried out to know the behaviour of helmet during
accidents.
• Interior of the helmet can be studied to circulate the air even more effectively over
the riders head.
Thank you