Abstract
Cold protection gloves are very important in cold regions. This study applies a layer of anisotropic material, with thermal properties to efficiently transfer heat from arm to hand and hence to improve the performance of the gloves, in cold protection gloves. In this study, how the thermal conductive layer of the gloves influences the hand temperature at a steady state under natural convection is analyzed. The results show that the thermal conductive layer can keep hands in a warmer condition, and 9~13℃ can be raised at the location of minimum temperature compared to cases of non-conductive gloves. There exists an optimal configuration at a fixed thickness of glove. The higher thermal conductivity or thicker thickness is, the more heat flux is transferred, and thus the more uniform distribution of temperature is. When horizontal thermal conductivity of conductive layer is 300 W/m∙K, and total glove thickness is 5mm, 1.8mm is the best thickness of conductive layer and 0.3mm thick can keep hand’s temperature above 23.5℃. Testing the model in different positions as opposed to gravity makes us know the effect of the boundary layer on the glove surface because it is similar to the thermal insulation layer of glove. The minimum temperature is found at the end of middle finger when the hand is pointed down.