2007, Piran, Slovenia

Environmental Ergonomics XII
Igor B. Mekjavic, Stelios N. Kounalakis & Nigel A.S. Taylor (Eds.), © BIOMED, Ljubljana 2007
be because of the difference of water transport property between the two fabrics.
Since the SC fabric had superior wicking ability (Figure 2), when the body began to
sweat, the sweat on skin surface quickly wet the fabric, and this then spread to the
outer environment, thus delayed the P increase. During the sweating period, again
because of its better wicking ability, sweat accumulation under the SC T-shirt was
less than that under the C T-shirts. Therefore, the widths of P plots above 60% RH of
the SC T-shirt were also smaller. It helped the participants to feel more comfortable
wearing SC T-shirt than C T-shirts. It was made clear that water transfer is much
important than water absorption in maintaining a comfortable microclimate under
garments.
Human body temperature has a rhythm within a day, it falls to a trough in midnight
and rises to a peak in the afternoon. The body temperature of a participant in
afternoon was often higher than in the morning, and was nearer to the fixed sweating
point. Therefore, due to the same exercise, the body temperature of a participant
increased, and exceeded the sweating threshold earlier in the afternoon than in the
morning, and the total sweat loss was is also greater. That was why the P of PM
experiments began to increase earlier, and the width of P plot above 60% RH was
larger.
DISCUSSION
Through this study, it was confirmed that the moisture transport of fabrics has a
significant influence on the microclimate between body surface and garments.
Garments made of fabrics with good water transfer properties will help to remove
sweat quickly and prevent the increase in humidity at the skin surface, thus
maintaining a comfortable microclimate under the garments. However, further study
is necessary to quantitatively investigate the relationship between the moisture
transfer property of a fabric and the garment wearer comfort.
REFERENCES
BS 3449, Testing the resistance of fabrics to water absorption(static immersion test).
Harnett, P. R. Mehta, P. N., 1984. A survey and comparison of laboratory test
methods for measuring wicking. Text. Res. J. 54, 471-477.
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