Preliminary Analysis of Hot-water Bottles Failing

Abstract

Over the years many bags are sold all over the world due to their ability to relieve pain and provide warmth in cold conditions. Hot water bottles are commonly used in the medical field to relieve joint pain, menstrual cramps, and muscle aches. While users find it more applicable, many injuries that have been documented are tied to burns caused by hot water bottle failure. This calls for the attention of product designers to be more concerned with designs that minimize injuries as much as possible. Since safety, is the key factor to consider during the manufacture of components, it is vital that engineers are more careful during the conceptual model design. This work focuses on a preliminary analysis of a hot water bottle using the FEA tool. The project will concentrate on the stress and strain distribution of the bottle under various loading conditions of internal and external pressure and hot water inside the bottle. The FEA models will be designed and simulated in Autodesk Inventor. To validate the numerical results obtained from the simulation, an experimental setup will be designed. A physical prototype will be used and subjected to real-life conditions and the extent of failure will be determined. The accuracy of the numerical results will be obtained by comparing them to the results obtained from the experiment. It is expected that this work will contribute to an in-depth understanding of factors causing the failure of hot water bottles and give some insights into the design of these bottles to improve both reliability and safety.