The first step is to purchase your own train. No, no, not that kind of conductor, we are going to talk about heat conductors and how to make them work better!
The first thing to know about conductive heat transfer is that the two objects must be in contact. Now it should be noted that any contact between two objects of different temperatures will result in conduction of heat from the higher temperature object to the lower, until the temperatures are equal. When we want to remove heat from an object or body as quickly as possible there are a few things we want to consider. The first is to ensure that the two objects have as much contact area as possible. The second is to try and make the temperature difference between the two objects as large as possible. The final one is to pick materials that are in their nature are heat conductive.
The Polar Skin Ice Sheet tackles these considerations in numerous ways. In this discussion, we will be considering the conduction heat transfer between the Ice Sheets and an overheated human body.
The first consideration was to have a high contact area between the two objects. The Ice Sheets come saturated with a liquid with an exceptionally low freezing point, further the sheets are thin which allows them to take on complex shapes. The liquid serves as a super conductive, thin layer that will interface with the overheated body. These two features make sure that contact between the Ice Sheet and the body is as complete as possible.
The second part of conduction is to maintain a large temperature difference between the body and the Ice Sheet. The low freezing point liquid used in the Polar Skin products allows them to be stored and used at temperatures at or below the freezing point of water. Comparing an Ice Sheet at 32 degrees Fahrenheit versus an overheated human body with a surface temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit it is easy to see that there is a large temperature difference needed to drive conduction.
The last point of discussion is the material and the interface. When treating an overheated person, it is imperative to remove any insulative layers (meaning clothes). This ensures that we are maximizing that contact between the cold Ice Sheet and the hot skin. Further the Ice Sheet uses a proprietary cloth material that holds more of the liquid ensuring that heat can be pulled away as quickly as possible.
As you can see from the discussion Polar Skin took a ground up approach to making sure that the Ice Sheet system was as conductive as possible. Maximizing conduction is one key to cooling an overheated body fast and safely!
Thank you to Justin Stacy, Ph.D. and Short Fuse Engineering for the knowledge and information. #becoolandsavealife