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AEMULA



2021



As a part of my last Fabricademy term, I followed a program named Fashion and Technology for Sustainable Futures, in partnership with CERN in a project called ATTRACT. During this program, we had to take one of the challenges of the future and come up with an innovative idea of how to solve this problem, using fashion and technology.


Along with Mariaclara Golfo, the issue we decided to tackle is the problem of wet bulb temperature. Wet-bulb temperature (Tw) is the temperature when humidity level is 100%. Tw over 35°C induces overheating in humans and mammals, marking humanity's survivability and adaptability limit to climate change. We took inspiration from the wind towers, adiabatic urban cooling systems and phase changing materials to design a shelter to be worn during wet bulb temperature events. We called this shelter "AEMULA".


Complete documentation

Observed global extreme humid heat. Color symbols represent the 99.9th percentile of observed daily maximum TW for 1979–2017 for HadISD stations with at least 50% data availability over this period. Marker size is inversely proportional to station density.


The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance, Colin Raymond, Tom Matthews and Radley M. Horton, 2020.


Wet bulb temperature is not sci-fi, it is a phenomenon already happening in some parts of the world as we can see on the map, and are predicted to happen more and more ofter for longer and longer periods of time (several hours).


Adiabatic Urban cooling, AREP, 2021


To make our "cooling shelter", we took inspiration from the principle of windtowers and these kind of adiabatic urban cooling towers. The principle is easy: water evaporation absorbs heat because the phase change from liquid to gaz requires some energy. These adiabatic urban cooling towers can allow reduce ambiant temperature from 6°C. What if we adapted this structure to a garment?


Adiabatic Urban cooling, AREP, 2021


Detail of water running on the bamboo pipes of the Adiabatic Urban Cooling tower.


Adiabatic Urban Cooling towers structure and principle.


Polyethylene glycol 1000 (PEG-1000)



Considering we wanted to tackle the issue of wet bulb temperature, we could not have used water as phase change material as the air in our conditions is already saturated in water by definition, so the water can not evaporate. However, other elements than water can be used, like PEG-1000. Polyethylene glycol-1000 (PEG-1000) is a phase changing material that melts at 35°C, which is exactly the temperature at which wet-bulb temperature gets lethal. Using this material in a structure similar to the towers scaled to the human size would thus allow to automatically activate a cooling effect when the temperature gets to 35°C.



3D printed pipe



Pipes were printed using filaflex to keep them flexible. Flexibility might be needed since the phase change of the PEG-1000 from solid to liquid comes with a change in density, but also for better movement of the bearer of the shelter.



Pipe 3D model



In order to trap the PEG-1000, pipes were designed and 3D-printed. They were designed to be hollow and hermetical, with a wavy structure on the bottom to let the air flow once it reaches the body.



Shelter 3D model 1.0



The first 3D model attempt of the shelter I made was using Rhinoceros 3D. The idea was to have a structure of pipes directed to some of the warmest areas of the body, but that woud still not impair the movemet of the bearer, hence the focus on the upper part of the torso.



Shelter 3D model 2.0



After doing some prototyping of the first model using paper, we realised the amount of pipes of the first 3D model was not enough and decided to go for another structure inspired by bee hives, that would a bit more constraining of the movement than the first one but would be more efficient. The 3D model was made using Rhinoceros 3D and the grasshopper plugin, so that the number and thickness of the holes can be adjusted.



Shelter 3D model 3.0: final version



After having the second version of the shelter ready, we were not satisfied of the aesthetics of it and decided to go back to the inspiration of the Adiabatic Urban Cooling tower. This 3D model was made using Rhinoceros 3D and the Grasshopper plugin. It is entierly parametric and only requires the user's body scan to be made custom size and shape for every bearer.



Prototype



After making the 3D models, we decided to make a physical prototype of the shelter using 3D printed pipes and fabric. Considering the amount of filaflex the 3D printing of the pipes required, we reduced the amount of pipes on that model. The prototype is non functionnal.