Lord of the Mood Rings

Abstract

Our main objective is to study the mechanisms by which heat transfer taking place in the human finger will affect the color change in the mood ring. This project uses GAMBIT and FIDAP to model the heat transfer from the finger to the ring. Finding the possible range of heat generations, one can estimate the temperature range of the surface and thus the best type of LC to be used in a ring. By determining the temperature in the ring at steady state the blood flow rate can be quantified, which will provide the required heat generation to change the mood ring to any desired color. We obtained several Q?s ranging from 6800 to 7200 W/m^3 appropriate to blood flow rate, and ambient conditions with no forced convection for the model. Further sensitivity analysis was done for selected data input, such as conductivity and source term, to assess their impact on the results. It was concluded that blood flow rate corresponding to the heat generation values used ranged from 0.245 to 0.265 cm^3/min. From the results it is recommended that the color change in the LCD crystal should be most sensitive over the range of 32 to 35 ?C.