The Comfort Evaluation And Physiological Function Development By Foundation Garment

The comfort and physiological function developed by foundation garment is a comprehensive multi-disciplinary research, involving clothing pressure comfort, thermal and moisture comfort, textile materials science, bio-mechanical physiological perception functions. Although some researcher has taken the study of clothing pressure and physiological reaction, the systematic study protocol and function-physiological theory is not adequate. The objective of this research was to establish a comprehensive knowledge framework for the engineering design and development of foundation garment. To achieve the objective, an integrative research and systemic experimental work was undertaken involved six principal parts, to investigate the subjective and objective pressure comfort, material mechanical properties, thermal and moisture comfort, physiological and functional mechanisms, the new functional pressure garment as well as the’multiple interactive physiological evaluation.The first part was to systematically research the foundation garment from the objective survey of pressure distribution and subjective pressure evaluation, to investigate the factors influencing tight clothing comfort. The innovation of this part is to analyze the subjective pressure sensation, as well as to determine the skin pressure sensitive section of body, which can give basic research theory to the development of foundation garment. The objective pressure quantity was influenced by body respiration, body curvature and texture of body contact interface, body movement, as well as the fit between the garment and body. The subjective pressure sensation and shaping effect assessment changed with the time. The overall pressure sensation and had significant correlation with the 15 positions subjective evaluation, three main factors were extracted from these factors through statistical analysis, the overall subjective pressure sensation had significant correlation with two of them.The second part widely tested 33 fabric mechanical behaviors, including KES mechanical, fabric surface, bi-axial, bagging, etc. The correlation between mechanical factors such as shearing, compression and objective pressure performance was found. This provides a rational and practical approach for assessing and predicting pressure of garment.The third part is to establish the model of human thermal and moisture comfort. The Fiala’s multi-node model of clothed thermoregulatory human body was improved based on the mechanism of dynamic heat and moisture transfer within "human-clothing-environment" system. The influence of clothing and environmental parameters on thermal response of human body is investigated by using Fiala’s model integrating with human tissue thermal wave equation, which accounts for the finite speed of heat propagation within human body. The results respectively obtained by TTWM and Pennes’equation is compared and analyzed. It is concluded that the clothed human thermoregulatory response can be more precisely evaluated by STWM, which provides theoretical basis for the design thermal functional clothing.In the fourth part, the wearing experiment was designed and the physical response according to the clothing pressure from seven representative physiological variables was investigated. The innovation of this part is to detect the correlation between the clothing pressure and energy metabolism. The conclusion was when the pressure was in a certain range, the physiological variables (such as metabolic equivalent) were increased, then decreased when the pressure is higher. Relationships between clothing pressure at each point of body surface during exercise and physiological variables were further explored, and found that the factor of respiratory before exercise has correlation with pressure of the area above the waist and bust,the factor of heart rate before exercise has no significant correlation with pressure of every point,but the factor of respiratory during exercise has a significant correlation with the pressure of bust area, the factor of heart rate during exercise. The conclusion can be the basis of new functional pressure weight-loss garmentThe fifth part was to develop low pressure new functional foundation garment. The garment construction was developed from static body prototype and dynamic Skin stretch. The proper clothes structure and pattern, garment pressure range, tactile perception and thermal and moisture comfort, correct material system, modified pressure map were comprehensive considered, to design and develop the functional foundation garment. Based on the previous researches, the functional effect was evaluated in the last part from body measurement and physiological functions. The fat female with the BMI 23 to 29 were selected as experiment subjects to check the physiological response. They were divided into experiment group and control group for 4-week weight-loss exercises, the physiological variables including weight, body fat, muscle mass were Significant difference, other physiological variables in the experimental group such as heart rate, oxygen uptake, body temperature, metabolic equivalent were also higher than control group. The results prove the low pressure foundation garment can contribute to energy metabolism, and has significant effect in female weight-loss.This systematic research advanced our understanding and established the comprehensive frame for functional garment. The subjective evaluation and objective pressure measurement, human physiological action, thermal and moisture comfort model provided a potent foundation for scientific design and development of comfort and mechanical functional performance of such clothing. The low pressure functional garment was the innovation of the pressure garment research area, had high research value and practical significance.