Experimental investigation and performance evaluation of thermal energy management arrangements for robots

Abstract

Abstract In this study, thermal energy management systems with the choices of three different thermal insulating materials are experimentally investigated for robotic applications. These insulating materials are stone wool, fiberglass and extruded polyurethane with air cooling and heating system which are evaluated in the low and high temperature environments to really assess the thermal behavior and performance in such extreme ambient conditions. In this regard, thermodynamic and heat transfer modeling studies are undertaken to investigate various performance parameters, including energy and exergy efficiencies. The experimental results showed that energy efficiencies of the thermal management methods are obtained 46.34% for stone wool, 31.15% for fiberglass, and 44.3% for air cooling system at 40°C. Moreover, the exergy efficiencies are 12.6% for stone wool, 15.08% for fiberglass, 18.91% for extruded polyurethane, and 3.86% for air cooling system.

Keywords

• efficiency
• energy
• exergy
• heat transfer
• robots
• thermal management