Theoretical Analysis for Heat Transfer of Electro-moxibustion Cup

• Main Authors: LIN,WEN HSIU, 林文修
• Other Authors: 杜鳳棋
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/89371859657336371144

碩士 === 大華技術學院 === 機電研究所 === 99 === Traditional Chinese medicine (also known as TCM) make use of a number of treatments that utilize heat transfer principles. Theses thermal therapies affect biological tissues by changing therapeutic temperature. The typical TCM therapies include acupuncture and moxibustion. These techniques are characterized by their amazingly rapid attainment of the desired results by the heat. Moxibustion therapy is a traditional Chinese medical technique which applies heat produced from ignited moxa or mugwort herb over the skin to stimulate acupuncture points of the body for the prevention or treatment of disease. Cupping therapy is usually performed by introducing heat into a cup or similar object and placing it immediately on the skin. Moxibustion and cupping therapies are used along with acupuncture therapy. These techniques are characterized by their amazingly rapid attainment of the desired results by the heat. Because moxibustion often includes the burning of moxa or mugwort herb, patients who have respiratory problems should avoid the use of smoking moxa. With moxibustion, treatment is accomplished by heating certain areas of the external body, this therapy has a risk of burning the patient if not carefully executed. Cupping therapy has a risk of burning the patient if not carefully executed. Therefore, it is essential to study on the heat transfer of heat therapies in moxibustion and cupping therapy, in order to investigate the relationship between the heating performance of the instrument and the heat transfer of the human skin during thermal therapy. The aim of this paper is to using software of ANSYS to study the heat transfer in the warm-moxibustion cup, the investigated therapies about TCM focus on zhenjiuology. In this study, a new electro-moxibustion cup is designed. We can place the cup on the skin and gently heat the air in the cup with an electro-heater. An acrylic cup has been used for this purpose, because, one can see the skin within the cup and produce insulated boundary conditions. A numerical analysis is used to study the heat transfer of the electro-moxibustion cup. We focused on heat transfer in the electro- moxibustion cup, an enclosure heated from the top. The phenomena of natural convection in the enclosure are as varied as the heating temperature (To) and room temperature (Ta). The colorful temperature contours and isothermal lines are simultaneously presented to illustrate heat transfer within the cup. Subject to the same aspect ratio (H/D), the temperature within the cup is found to vary along the axial direction. The heat conduction normal to the skin (Qcond) is relatively small; hence, the heat transfer mechanism is dominated by heat convection. In the Part 2 of the present paper, we have put great efforts into investigating the heat transfer in a new-designed warm-moxibustion cup. As a result, We find the cup subject to the aspect ratio H/D=1.033, and the temperature ratio To/Ta<7.5, the heat transfer mechanism is dominated by heat conduction.