An automatic and portable prosthetic cooling device with high cooling capacity based on phase change

• An automatic and portable cooling device for lower-limb prosthesis is demonstrated.
• Adjustable thermal resistance using fluid pipes is invented and demonstrated.
• High cooling capacity has been achieved without using a fan.
• The device maintains a constant skin temperature for a thermal load up to 15.6 W.
• The device can remove excess heat for all patient activity patterns.

Lower limb prosthesis wearers usually suffer from excessive heat and resulted perspiration within a prosthetic socket. We present a novel cooling device that can remove excessive heat and maintain a desired skin temperature in a lower-limb prosthesis. To remove excessive metabolic heat, the cooling device used heat pipes to collect heat generated from the residual limb and dissipate heat to an external ice pack. More importantly by using a novel flow channel array, the system thermal resistance was adjustable, and a cooling capacity ranging from 6.6 W to 15.6 W was achieved to cover various wearer activities. We demonstrated the device’s capability of removing excessive heat under two simulated walking activity patters (at 2 km/h and 5 km/h); and the skin temperature was maintained constant at 31.4 °C ± 0.2 °C by using corresponding cooling conditions. Finally, we demonstrated that by using an automatic control scheme the system can maintain a constant, desired skin temperature under varying thermal loads. With its compact size, high cooling capacity and flexibility of operation, this device is promising for reducing skin maceration and increasing the quality of life for prosthesis users.

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