coolANT
a thermoregulation vest
Group research and design project for the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge, Advisor Professor Saleh Kalantari, Cornell University, Spring 2019
Michael Brigham, Chloe Collins, Julia Jaffe, Michael Kowalski , and Elena Sabinson, Award of Merit Recipients
A garment that can help workers thermoregulate more effectively so they can continue to work safely and efficiently in outdoor environments.
How can we keep workers cool, safe, and productive?
What can we learn from organisms that thrive in extreme heat?
Bio-inspiration was drawn from the Saharan silver ant and the unique optical and thermoregulatory properties of their hairs. Each hair is composed of corrugated facets that reflect solar radiation to the point of total internal reflection. This allows the ants to forage during the hottest parts of the day, away from the threat of predators. We translated this structure into the design of the microfibers covering our vest, mimicking the passive cooling via reflection utilized by the ants. As we looked for additional bio-inspired properties, we identified the dense overlay of the keratin structure in bird feathers as having similar optical and thermoregulatory properties to the ant hairs. Beyond reflection, we also wanted to explore how to enhance heat dissipation by examining this process in other homeotherms. Using bottlenose dolphin fins as our inspiration, we created a triangular ridge to conduct excess heat away from the body and dissipate it via convection.
