The research of EMU glove heating system

The purpose of this research is to address the problem of how to prevent the hands of astronauts becoming frozen whilst carrying out Extravehicular Activity (EVA). The following, outlines a method of heating the EVA spacesuit gloves which prevents astronauts hands from freezing. In this work, Boundary Element Methods (BEM) are used to calculate the temperature fields of hands and gloves, as BEM can transform three-dimensional temperature fields into two-dimensional curving side integrals. In order to make full use of the generated energy, high heat flow is designed to warm fingertips and the sides of the fingers. The results show that BEM have many advantages compared to other numerical methods in dealing with complicated boundaries, and lead to an optimal heating procedure, which provides a better thermal protection for fingers, preserving their dexterity. (C) 2003 Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.