This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Crow, R. M. Articles by Osczevski, R. J. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The Interaction of Water with Fabrics

Brantford, Ontario N3T 5L7, Canada

Randall J. Osczevski

Defence and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine, North York, Ontario M3M 3B9, Canada

This study examines the interaction between water and a range of fabrics because of claims that synthetic fibers such as polypropylene do not pick up moisture and so when made into active wear, leave the wearer warm and dry. We have found that all fiber types, when made into fabrics, pick up water, with a strong correlation between a fabric's thickness and the amount of water it picks up freely expressed in absolute terms rather than percent of its mass. We have also found that properties relevant to clothing on an exercising person, such as drying time and energy required to evaporate water from under and through a dry fabric or dry a wet fabric, depend on the amount of water the fabric picks up, not fiber type. The amount of water wicked from one layer to another depends on pore sizes and their corresponding volumes. These results are supported by manikin and human subject experiments.

Textile Research Journal, Vol. 68, No. 4, 280-288 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/004051759806800406


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?