The improvement on thermal performance of herbal ball compress

Abstract

Herbal ball compress is an equipment usually employed in Thai traditional medical treatment to relieve muscular pain. The herbal ball needs to be prepared by steam heating prior to the application in order to extract essential oils from herbal ingredients. This study aims at improving thermal performance of herbal ball so that it can maintain temperature at a suitable level for a particular period of time. In this article, the investigation to facilitate the herbal ball compress usage is performed in various schemes. Adding some materials of high specific heat capacity is one approach. In addition, employing electric powered heat sources such as cable heater, Peltier sheet, ceramic resistor and directly supplied steam are also included in the test. The experimental results revealed that the herbal ball with small water balloons inside can prolong the time duration at a desired temperature range. Direct steam supply system was built by modifying a household electric pan. The experiment demonstrated that the temperature of herbal ball was capably controlled at a desired level through the treatment. It is supposed that the appropriate method could benefit thermal performance of herbal ball compress in regard to temperature control, treatment duration, economical aspect as well as safety circumstance.