Development Of Woven Fabrics Imitating Plant Leaves And Research On Their Wet Comfort Performance

In recent years,with the improvement of living standards,consumers have paid more attention to comfort of clothing fabrics and have higher requirements.Shirt as an essential clothing item for most office workers throughout the year,is often worn close to the body in hot and humid summers.Research on wet comfort of shirt fabric is particularly important,and it is expected to have the function of timely stripping human sweat and quickly evaporating and dissipating moisture.Therefore,this study focuses on the development of summer shirt fabrics with good wet comfort performance.The research was inspired by the water conduction and transpiration in plant leaves,and used the bionic method to design woven fabrics that imitate plant leaves,and then tested their wet comfort performance and explored the impact of relevant bionic structural parameters on the moisture transmission and moisture dissipation performance of fabrics,so as to provide a new idea and direction for the development of summer shirt fabrics.Firstly,the study established a woven fabric design scheme that mimics plant leaves.By studying the mechanism of water conduction and transpiration in plant leaves,as well as the macroscopic and microscopic morphological characteristics of plant leaves,a woven structure model simulating plant leaves was established,including the leaf vein area responsible for water conduction,the leaf surface area responsible for water evaporation,and the stomatal structure of the leaf surface area.In addition,according to the leaf vein structure,leaf surface structure,leaf vein density,stoma density,water content gradient in leaves and other leaf structure or character indicators that play an important role in water transmission and transpiration of plant leaves,the corresponding bionic fabric structures or parameters were established.Based on the functional characteristics of the leaf vein area and leaf surface area,three types of leaf vein structures and four types of leaf surface structures were designed,forming a total of 12 types of leaf like structures.Linen yarns were applied in the leaf vein area,and polyester/cotton blend yarns were applied in the leaf surface area to form a biomimetic fabric design scheme.Three types of control samples with pure cotton yarns were also designed.Secondly,a total of 15 fabric samples were obtained in machine weaving.After being processed,the morphology and performance of the fabric samples were tested,including basic parameters such as warp and weft density,thickness,and weight,as well as moisture comfort parameters including breathability,moisture conductivity,and moisture dissipation.Finally,the impact of biomimetic structural parameters on the wet comfort performance of fabrics were analyzed,including moisture conductivity and moisture dissipation performance.The results indicate that:(1)In the leaf vein structure,the mesh leaf vein structure exhibits the most prominent ability of moisture conduction and dissipation.(2)In leaf structure,the porous structure performs the most excellent moisture conductivity,but the influence of leaf structure on the moisture dissipation performance of the fabric is not as significant as that of leaf vein structure.(3)The increase in leaf vein density has a relatively small impact on the moisture conductivity and moisture dissipation performance of the fabric,and from the perspective of product development,it is insufficient to support higher cost inputs.(4)The relationship between pore density and moisture conductivity is not significant,but there is a significant positive correlation with moisture dissipation performance.(5)The gradient of yarn hydrophilicity needs to be matched with a reasonable fabric structure,which can demonstrate excellent moisture conductivity and dissipation capabilities,and is superior to pure cotton fabrics with high consumer recognition.Overall,the biomimetic fabric with mesh structured veins and perforated leaf surfaces exhibits the best wet comfort performance.The conclusions drawn in this article can provide technical support for the development of summer shirt fabrics in the future.