Thermoelectric Cooling Device Integrated with PCM Heat Storage for MS Patients

Most Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients are sensitive to temperature resulting in wide range of symptoms including fatigue and intention tremor. Published work showed that cooling the upper limbs can reduce the severity of these symptoms thus improving the quality of lives of MS patients. Currently available cooling devices are large, heavy and power intensive. This work aims to develop a compact light weight wearable upper limb cooling device that can be used to reduce the skin temperature to 10 degrees C and for duration of 20 minutes. This work combines the heat pumping ability of thermoelectric devices together with the heat storage capability of PCM materials. Experimental work was carried out to investigate the performance of three different PCM materials. Results showed that PCM-OM37 with power input of 3W can deliver the required temperature of 10 degrees C for duration of 20 minutes highlighting the potential of this proposed technology. (c) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.