FE analysis of thermal properties of woven fabric constructed by yarn incorporated with microencapsulated phase change materials

Phase Change Materials are the substances which can store or release a large amount of energy in the form of latent heat at certain melting temperatures. Such properties open new opportunities in the development of thermo-regulating textiles for thermal protection against extreme environment. In this work, a woven fabric has been made using a novel synthetic yarn incorporated with Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials and its heat transfer property has been studied using finite element analysis. The result of simulation after post processing has been validated against experimental result. It shows a strong correlation between the predicted and experimental results. Based on validated model, delay in temperature rise as a function of time is also predicted which is not possible to be determined through experiment.