Air Conditioned Suite
People living in cold climate would appreciate Air Conditioned
Suite, which heats external air for breathing and warming the body; in hot
climate, they would appreciate one, which cools external air.
We need two systems of
air management: one for breathing and another for comfort of the skin.
Inhaled air should be
filtered, heated or cooled, as needed, its humidity should be adjusted and
health improving substances should be added. Exhaled air should be removed from
vicinity of the face, and heat, which it has, should be reused.
Generally, inhaled and exhaled air
should be at atmospheric pressure, however, when a user has some breathing
problems, it is advisable to supply air for inhalation under somewhat elevated
pressure.
The part of the Air Management
System supporting breathing should have two tubes, one to supply conditioned
fresh air – inhaling tube, and another for removal of exhaled air – exhaling
tube. Outside the vicinity of the head, these tubes should be combined: inhaling
tube inside and exhaled air moving on the periphery of combined tube.
It has to include a Breathing Mask,
covering the nose and the mouth. The Breathing Mask should have a valve, controlled
by changes in air pressure caused by breathing. When air pressure rises, air
goes out through the exhaling tube, and when it drops, the air goes in through
the inhaling tube. The Breathing Mask has to be comfortable and does not need
to be tight.
Air supplied for comfort
of the skin, should be conditioned: its temperature and humidity should be
adjusted and health improving substances should be added. It should be pumped
at slow speed, at pressure slightly higher than atmospheric. Air should be
supplied to various points on the body through flexible plastic tubes with
holes in them. It should seep out through the clothes taking with it vapor and
sweat.
To provide air for the
skin, flexible plastic tubes with holes in them should branch in a few “trees” starting
from a “source” tube. Attention should be paid to keeping hands and feet at
proper temperature. These parts of the body should have good supply of air.
In some places, these
tubes could be placed close to each other, in other places they cannot be
placed at all, as palms of hands and soles of feet. To provide such carefully
organized placement, they have to be “woven” into Special Underwear. This
underwear should be worn above thin traditional underwear.
The Suite for Cold Weather
should look as traditional clothes used for cold weather. Traditional clothes
are cleverly designed to prevent escape of worm air trapped in them and to accommodate
transition of vapor into water, and water into ice in the materials of clothes.
Also, insulation, reducing radiation of heat trapped under clothes, is designed
cleverly.
This Suit should have
two parts: a “winter hat”, which covers cheeks and the neck, and “body coverings”,
like coat, pants, gloves, boots, etc.
Special Underwear (with
embedded air supply tubes) should have corresponding two parts. Each part should
have own air supply tube and these tubes should go through corresponding clothes
– one through the “winter hat” and another through “body coverings”.
Combined tube for breathing support
should go through the “winter hat”.
A transparent face
shield should be added to the “winter hat” (use of Breathing Mask prevents
collection of condensate on such shield).
Escape of warm air from “looking up
openings” in gloves and boots should be minimized. Gloves should be flexibly
connected to the sleeves and boots should be flexibly connected to the pants.
The Suit for Hot
Weather should be made similar to the Suit for Cold Weather, using different
materials, though. To prevent escape of cold air from it, the “hat” needs to be
flexibly connected to the “coat”, and the “coat” needs to be flexibly connected
to “pants”.
Intake of air for the
Suit – for breathing, skin, and machinery, should be made in the top of the “winter
hat” of the Suit, with opening facing forward. This way, smell coming with the
air could be associated with the direction, where a person is looking. The intake
tube should go back on the top of the “winter hat” and reach machinery from
there.
Air exhaust - exhaled
air and exhaust of machinery, should be made to the back and upward, to
minimize its interference with air intake.
Two sound collectors
shaped similar to the way human ears are shaped, should be placed outside of
the “winter hat” in places corresponding hat wearer’s ears. They have to have
microphones in them. Inside the “winter hat”, opposite these microphones,
should be micro speakers, each connected to corresponding microphone. The
system should run on small batteries.
A few devices are
needed to support operations of the Suit: compressors, air heaters, air
chillers, air tanks and, possibly, fuel tanks, etc. They all should be small
and slow, still the wearer’s body has to be insulated from them. They should be
in a Backpack, made with strong, fireproof and lightweight plastics. The side
of the Backpack touching wearer’s back should be heat insulated.
Two tubes, one of which
is “combined”, connect this Backpack to the “winter hat” and one tube connects
it to the rest of the Suit. These tubes should be easy to connect and
disconnect, hence, they have to have special connectors.
Controls of its Devices could be
collected on the belt, and then a cable should run from corresponding Control
Panel to this Backpack.
Different sets of Devices could be
placed in such Backpack. Some Devices should be in any variant of it:
·
an air compressor supplying air for the skin (pushing
air into the Suit through two tubes);
·
air compressor supplying air for breathing at
elevated pressure (note, if such functionality is offered, a special air tank exists
to assure smooth air flow);
·
either an air heater and humidifier for Cold Weather
Suite, or an air cooler and water drainer for Hot Weather Suit;
·
energy supply (an internal combustion engine, or an electric
battery);
·
power transmission (either from the engine, or from
the battery);
·
heat exchange systems (to heat or chill supplied air);
·
filtering system of incoming air;
·
two conditioning
systems of incoming air, one for breathing air and another for the air
designated for skin.
It seems that such Suit should be
already in use in places Far North, where profitable economic activity goes on,
but working conditions are difficult, because of harsh weather. The problem is
with Energy Supply of such Suit.
In case of electric battery, usually,
there is no infrastructure to refill it, while it is dangerous to carry high
capacity battery.
In case of internal combustion
engine, the engine is hot, noisy and dirty.
However, the Suit needs to produce
only very small excess of pressure and needs to heat only small amount of air
per hour and it possible to make it economical in many important cases.
Electric battery could be used in
places, where the infrastructure to refill batteries exists or could be set economically.
Reciprocating Pumps driven by a linear electric motor could be used as
compressors (see “Reciprocating Pumps” on this site). Well insulated electric
heaters could be used to heat up external air.
From the other hand, a special
internal combustion engine exists, which fits requirements of this application
(see “Pumping Engine” on this site). Such engine would pump fluid of hydraulic
transmission and in turn Reciprocating Pumps, driven by this fluid, would be used
as a compressor.
This engine has to be cooled, and
heat removed by the cooling system should be used to warm the air supply of the
Suit. There is no need for a special heater in such setup. Fuel in this engine
could be burned as slowly as needed, hence it is ideally suited to be used as a
heater, while it drives the compressor. Parameters of this engine should be
selected to play optimally these two roles of the engine: driver of the
compressor and heater.
The Suit for Hot Weather needs
means of chilling external air and disposal of produced water condensate.
In this application, an air
compressor should be used to chill the air through well known steps: compress
air in a tank, remove heat using fast flow of external air, and release air
into the system at almost atmospheric pressure (drop of pressure should chill
the air). Water condensate should be removed on the way and collected for
eventual disposal.
The Suit could be used
in variety of applications, with relatively small modifications.
With improved filtering
of taken in air, it could be used in dusty industrial conditions, or during
dust storms.
With medically set
levels of air pressure and medication added to the inhaled air, it could be
used in treatment of breathing and lung problems.
With oxygen tank added
to the Backpack, oxygen could be added to air designated for inhalation, in
volumes proportional to volumes of inhaled air.
Alexander Liss 6/11/2020