Emergency Blanket vs. Standard Sheet

ME 340 Final Project

Scott Pruett & Scott McEuen

Experimental Setup• Goal: to compare the

surface temperatures of an emergency blanket and a sheet

• Procedure:– Turned out lights in

CTB 240– Scott laid under

blankets for 20 min.– Measured blanket

surface temp. near arm w/ thermocouple

Analytical Model• Energy Balance:

• Assumptions– Model Scott as long

cylinder– Heat source temp. (surface

body temp.) is constant– Radiative components for

emergency blanket are zero because of polished surface (ε ≈ 0)

– Tsurr is the same for all of the walls in the classroom

– Model radiation as small convex object in large cavity

0)()( ,,,, outradoutconvinradinconv qqqq

Heat Source

Blanket

Control Surface

inconvq ,

inradq ,

outconvq ,

outradq ,

Air, T∞

Tb

Ts

Tsurr

Results

Blanket/Sheet Surface Temperature (˚C)

ExperimentalCalculat

edPoint # 1 2 3

Average

E-Blank

et 2323.

323.

3 23.20 24.50

Sheet24.

224.

423.

8 24.13 26.70