Development and Evaluation on Thermoregulating Sleeping Bags with Phase Change Viscose Fiber

Abstract

Sleeping bag can protect the human body keeping warm effectively in the cold environment. Among the many varieties sleeping bags, phase change thermoregulating sleeping bag is an innovative product, which can adjust the cold and hot comfort of the environment around the body. However, there are little phase change thermoregulating sleeping bags for adults, especially about their design and tests. Therefore, this study focused on the development of a phase change viscose sleeping bag suitable for adults, and explored the method to research its thermoregulating property compared with ordinary sleeping bag. Notably, climate chamber, “Walter” biothermal manikin and temperature sensors were used to evaluate the performance of them. The results showed that the phase change sleeping bag had obvious function of thermoregulating. When the ambient temperature changed for about 10 ℃, the temperature in the phase change sleeping bag changed only 0.3–0.8 ℃ because of the thermoregulating property of phase change viscose fiber. Meanwhile, it had a 9–11 ℃ temperature difference (△T) between phase change sleeping bag and ordinary sleeping bag in the climate chamber with a temperature change from 10 to 50 ℃.