Week 7

We had another meeting with Dr. Weyant this week in order to establish how the specifications would be figured out. After consulting several online resources and discussing the overarching idea behind the calculations, we were clear on what values we needed to account for in order to proceed with our design. From this point, we did some additional researching and made use of Fourier's Law [q = -kA(dT/dx)] in order to determine a temperature difference that a peltier would need to generate. With the values of the heat transfer coefficient of silicone (k), area of the interface (A), thickness of the interface (dx), and heat flow through the interface area (q), we were able to determine this temperature difference. From here, we used the temperature of the human body (roughly 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) to find the temperature we would have to lower the interface to in order to create continual heat flow through our system. The next week will consist of meeting with additional faculty to solidify calculations, developing a model for the peltier-skin system, and testing the model several times to see if our calculations are correct.