Steven Vogel 2009 Bioinspir. Biomim. 4 046004 doi:10.1088/1748-3182/4/4/046004
Steven Vogel
Show affiliationsSmall birds and mammals commonly minimize respiratory heat loss with reciprocating counterflow exchangers in their nasal passageways. These animals extract heat from the air in an exhalation to warm those passageways and then use that heat to warm the subsequent inhalation. Although the near-constant volume of buildings precludes direct application of the device, a pair of such exchangers located remotely from each other circumvents that problem. A very simple and crudely constructed small-scale physical model of the device worked well enough as a heat conserver to suggest utility as a ventilator for buildings.
Issue 4 (December 2009)
Received 31 August 2009, accepted for publication 26 October 2009
Published 17 November 2009
Steven Vogel 2009 Bioinspir. Biomim. 4 046004
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