The Effect Of Sportswear Ventilation Design On Thermal Microenvironment

When people are doing exercise or playing sports, heat production of body improves. As a way to cool down, the body sweats and the humidity and temperature under clothing microenvironment increases. And people will feel uncomfortable. Therefore, it's critical for sportswear to have the ability to dissipate heat and moisture.In this thesis, at first, the recent researches on thermal physiological comfort were reviewed; and then, the heat and moisture transfer through garment, ventilation design for clothing and its influence on the micro climate of clothing were introduced. To investigate the effect of ventilation design on sportswear microenvironment, four T-shirts made of different fabric materials and one jacket with vent design on the chest, back and underarm were chosen for study. The air permeability, water vapor permeability, thermal resistance and water-vapour resistance of the materials of T-shirts were measured. Wear trials under a certain exercise condition were conducted in an environment of constant temperature and humidity, the volunteers'skin temperature and the temperature and relative humidity of the microclimate under the T-shirts and jacket were recorded,and their subjective thermal feeling was also reported.By linking the fabric materials properties with wear trials'results, it was clear that the water vapor permeability has direct influence on the humidity of clothing microenvironment, and the ventilation through fabric will enhance heat and moisture dissipation and thus reduce in the temperature and humidity of microenvironment. The vents at chest and back could promote the effect of'bellows ventilation'which accelerates the transmission of heat and moisture and help the clothing sustain a comfortable microenvironment. The achievement in this study will provide a physiological basis for the sportswear design in terms of fabric use and vent design.