A Study On Thermal-Wet Comfort Of Fabric And Clothing With New-typed Regenerated Fiber

The various application of new-typed regenerated fiber such as Modal and Soybean-protein fiber in clothing industry significantly extend the diversity of clothing, which makes much more alternatives available when choosing clothing materials, and soybean-protein fiber's successful application in clothing is Chinese scientists and technicians' creation.Because the diffusion of heat and the water vapor transfer happensimultaneously and interacteach other when clothes are being worn, and Modal and Soybean-protein fiber are new-typed regenerated fiber, whose fiber attributes are different with those of artificial fiber and not totally same with those of natural fiber, so it is very necessary to have a further study on the interaction of diffusions of heat and water vapor, that is the coupled heat and moisture diffusion, for such new-typed regenerated fiber.A comprehensive assessment on the thermal-wet comfort of fabric and clothing with the new-typed regenerated fiber, such as Modal,soybean-protein fiber and Richcel was made, on the basis of a series of experiments on the fabric and the clothing with Modal, soybean-protein fiber, and the different mixes of soybean fiber and other fiber, these experiments include subjective experiments on the comfort of clothing and objective experiments on fabric including testing the dynamic diffusion of heat and moisture and common experiments such as testing the water vapor permeability of fabric , -testing thermal resistance of fabric , testing air permeability of fabric,ymeasuring the qmax and moisture absorption of fabric. And, as comparisons, the fabric and clothing with pure cotton and pure polyester were also studied.With the use of constant temperature water-bathing box and thermal imaging camera, the experiment apparatus was built up, which can measure the temperature on the fabric surface under both the dry-heat condition and the moisture-heat condition. Thermal imaging camera can not only measure the accurate temperature, but also avoid some negative impact on the experiments and inconveniences caused by traditional temperature measurement apparatus such as temperature sensor because the apparatus need touch the measurement surface when working, while thermal imaging camera need not touch the measurement surface because it is non-contact temperature measurement apparatus.The coupled heat and moisture diffusion of fabric can be studied by comparing the temperatures on fabric surface under the dry-heat condition and the moisture-heat condition, the study shows temperature changes caused by fabric's absorbing or releasing moisture is related to fabric's capability of absorbing and releasing moisture.In order to analyze the parameters of temperature changes caused by fabric's absorbing or releasing moisture, the method of Hierarchical Cluster Analysis was applied. The rates of temperature increase during the moisture-heat diffusion (Ks) and the maximum temperature gaps between the dry-heat diffusion and the moisture-heat diffusion (ATmax) were searched out as the typical parameters of temperature changes caused by fabric's absorbing or releasing moisture.