Evaluation of the thermal comfort performance of different knitted fabrics and fibre blends suitable for skin layer

of firefighters protective clothing

Nazia Nawaz, OlgaTroynikov Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia 1Corresponding author: nazia.nawaz@student.rmit.edu.au

Introduction
Protective clothing is required to shield the wearers from a variety of hazardous environments or extreme conditions encountered by humans in some industries, military or firefighting. Firefighters protective clothing Firefighters protective clothing plays a vital role for their protection against heat, hot liquids, chemicals and mechanical impacts. The protective clothing facilitates the firefighter to approach the fire to rescue people from fire and to fight the fire. Modern firefighters clothing is a multi-layered garment assembly which is usually worn over an undergarment (skin layer).

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Firefighting and thermal comfort Firefighting is an exhaustive physical task which generates body heat, also in

addition extremely hot working environment results in substantial elevation of body core temperature.
To reduce that temperature to normal, the body perspires in liquid and vapour form. For better control of body temperature in keeping it a normal level the evaporation of perspiration is necessary. Thermal comfort of human body is maintained by perspiring both in vapour and liquid form and moisture transmission through clothing has a great influence on its thermal comfort

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Firefighting and thermal comfort To provide thermal comfort to the human body the garment next to skin must have three important attributes: to absorb Heat Vapour Liquid perspiration from skin and then transfer these to the outside of the garment Thermal comfort and fabric properties Thermal comfort properties of textile fabrics are actually influenced by the type of fibre spinning method of yarns yarn count yarn twist yarn hairiness fabric thickness, fabric cover factor fabric porosity and finish

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Literature review Milenkovic et al. demonstrated that fabric thickness, enclosed still air and external air movement are the major factors that affect the heat transfer through fabric. Ozdil (2007) experimentally verified that yarn properties such as yarn count, yarn twist and spinning process influence thermal comfort properties of 11 rib knitted fabrics. The 1 1 rib fabrics produced from finer yarns showed lower thermal conductivity and higher water vapour permeability values than coarser yarns counts. As the yarn twist used for 1 1 rib fabrics was increased, thermal absorptive and water vapour permeability of the fabrics also increased. At the same time thermal resistance values decreased as the twist coefficient of yarn increased.Thermal resistance values of fabrics knitted with combed cotton yarns were lower than the fabrics knitted with carded cotton yarns. Higher water vapour permeability was observed in case of combed yarns.
Milenkovic, L., Skundric, P., Sokolovic, R., Nikolic, T., (1999). "comfort Properties of Defence Protective clothing." The scientific Journal Facta Universities 1(4): 101-106. zdil, N., A. MarmaralI, et al. (2007). "Effect of yarn properties on thermal comfort of knitted fabrics." International Journal of Thermal Sciences 46(12): 1318-1322.

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Arzu Marmarali studied thermal comfort properties of blended yarns and knitted fabrics of Cotton /Soybean fibres and Cotton/Seacell fibres in different blend ratios and found that the thermal resistance value of 100% cotton fabric was significantly higher than whole blended materials. 50/50% blend ratio of both fabrics (Co/Seacell, Co/Soybean) had the lowest thermal resistance values than the other blend ratios and that was due to lower fabric thickness value of 50/50% Co/SeaCell and Co/Soybean fabrics. Therefore with the decreasing of fabric thickness, thermal resistance will also decrease. Troynikov et.al (2011) studied moisture management properties of wool/ polyester and wool/bamboo knitted in single jersey fabrics for the sportswear base layers and concluded that blending wool fibre with polyester fibre and, in particular, wool fibre with regenerated bamboo fibre, improved moisture management properties than fabrics in wool fibre or regenerated bamboo fibre without blending.
Troynikov, O., et all, Wiah, W., (2011). "Moisture management properties of wool/polyester and wool/bamboo knitted fabrics for sportswear base layer." Textile Research Journal 0: 1-11. Arzu Marmarali, M. B., Tuba Bedez Ute, Gozde Damci (2009). Thermal comfort Properties of Blended Yarns Knitted Fabrics. ITMC. Casablanca, Morocco.

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Objective of the study To evaluate thermal and moisture management properties of six commercially available knitted fabrics of different fibre blends and knitted structures for skin layer garments of firefighters protective clothing The assessment and ranking of their thermal and moisture management performance. Materials and methods Following are the six commercially available knitted fabrics having

different fibre content and knit structure that were evaluated Merino wool Merino wool/bamboo Merino wool/spandex Merino wool/biophyl 100% cotton 100 % polyester

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Fabric physical properties Fabric mass per unit area Fabric thickness Fabric density Fabric Moisture management properties For evaluation of fabrics moisture management properties Moisture Management Tester (MMT) was used according to American Association of Textile Chemists and Colourists (AATCC) Test Method 1952009. Moisture management tester indices A series of indexes are defined and calculated to characterize liquid moisture management performance of the test sample by using moisture management tester, which are as follow; Top wetting time WTt and bottom wetting time WTb Top absorption rate (ARt) and bottom absorption rate (ARb) Top max wetted radius (MWRt) and bottom max wetted radius (MWRb) Top spreading speed (SSt) and bottom spreading speed (SSb) Accumulative one-way transport index (AOTI) and overall moisture management capacity (OMMC)
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Moisture management tester indices

The OMMC is an index indicating the overall capacity of the fabric to manage the transport of liquid moisture, which includes three aspects 1. Average moisture absorption rate at the bottom surface 2. One-way liquid transport capacity 3. Maximum moisture spreading speed on the bottom surface The larger the OMMC is the higher the overall moisture management ability of the fabric is. According to AATCC Test Method 1952009, the indices are graded and converted from value to grade based on a five grade scale (15). The five grades of indices represent: 1 Poor 2 Fair 3 Good 4 Very good 5 Excellent

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Fabric thermal properties (Thermal and water vapour resistance) Thermal resistance and water vapour resistance of fabrics were evaluated using sweating according to ISO 11092.guarded hot plate acordingo ISO 11092. Thermal resistance For the determination of thermal resistance of the sample, the air temperature is set to 20 C and the relative humidity is controlled at 65%. Air speed generated by the air flow hood is 1 m/s. After the system reaches steady state, total thermal resistance of the fabric is Rct A(Ts Ta) / H governed by: Where, Rc, t is the total thermal resistance plus the boundary air layer measured in m2K/W, A, the area of the test section in m2 Ts, the surface temperature of the plate in K Ta, the temperature of ambient air in K H, the electrical power in Watts

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Water vapour resistance To measure the water vapour resistance of the fabric air temperature is set at 35 C and relative humidity is controlled at 40%.After a steady state is reached, the total evaporative resistance of the fabric is calculated by:
Re t A( Ps Pa) / H

Where, Ret, is total vapour resistance provided by liquid barrier, fabric and boundary air layer measured in m2KPa/W) A, the area of test section in m2 Ps, the water vapour pressure at plate surface in Pa Pa the water vapour pressure of the air on Pa H, the electrical power in Watts

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Results and discussion

Table 1. Physical and structural properties of sample fabrics

Fabric code SJ1 SJ2

Fibre composition 100% Merino wool 60% Merino Wool/ 40% Bamboo 100%Cotton 94% Merino wool/ 6% spandex 100%Polyester

Construction

Fabric weight (g/m2) 139 156

Fabric thickness (mm) 0.35 0.34

No. of wales/cm 18 16

No. of courses /cm 18 16

Single Jersey Single Jersey

SJ3 SJ4

Single Jersey Single Jersey

149 185

0.47 0.55

19 20

15 20

IM1

Interlock based mock mesh Interlock based mock mesh

168

0.61

16

16

IM2

52% Merino wool / 48% Biophyl

216

0.97

16

12

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Results and discussion

Moisture Management Properties of sample fabrics
Table 2. MMT results in value
Fabric code WTt (sec) WTb (sec) ARt (%/sec) ARb (%/sec) MWRt (mm) MWRb (mm) SSt (mm/sec) SSb (mm/sec) AOTI (%) OMMC

SJ1 CV

63.312 1.265

50.515 1.343

3.671 1.414

5.117 0.290

2.5 1.414

5 1.414

0.365 1.414

0.959 1.414

319.182 0.011

0.448 0.112

SJ2 CV

7.883 0.071

5.000 0.137

8.152 0.236

5.925 0.114

12.5 0.282

12.5 0.282

1.286 0.097

3.102 0.098

133.396 0.251

0.379 0.030

SJ3 CV

41.255 0.249

5.416 0.979

8.061 0.194

14.286 0.276

13.333 0.216

13.333 0.216

0.349 0.419

1.600 0.614

102.118 0.394

0.244 0.383

SJ4 CV

3.281 1.084

29.274 1.064

7.153 0.046

6.853 0.181

5 0

10 0

3.131 1.035

1.154 0.043

500.714 0.033

0.521 0.057

IM1 CV

30.617 1.165

47.063 1.242

39.894 0.953

5.200 0.548

7.5 0.471

7.5 0.471

0.947 1.280

0.941 1.329

102.399 0.283

0.203 0.397

IM2 CV

119.953 0

3.835 0.250

0 0

5.069 0.561

0 0

7.5 0.471

0 0

0.898 0.091

434.105 0.184

0.487 0.036

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Results and discussion

5 4
Grade

3 2 1 0 SJ1 2 2 SJ2 3 3.5 SJ3 2 3.5 SJ4 4 2 IM1 2 2 IM2 1.5 4

Top WTt Grade Bottom WTb Grade

Figure 1. WTt and WTb grades of sample fabrics

3.5 3 2.5
Grade

2 1.5 1 0.5 0 SJ1 1 1 SJ2 1 1 SJ3 1 2 SJ4 1 1 IM1 3 1 IM2 1 1

Top ARt grade Bottom ARb grade

Figure 2. ARt and ARb (%/sec) grades of sample fabrics

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Results and discussion

3.5 3 2.5

Grade

2 1.5 1 0.5 0 SJ1 1 1 SJ2 2.5 2.5 SJ3 3 3 SJ4 1 2 IM1 1.5 1.5 IM2 1 1.5

Top MWRt grade Bottom MWRb grade

Figure 3. MWRt and MWRb (mm) grades of sample fabrics

4 3.5 3 2.5
Grade

2 1.5 1 0.5 0 SJ1 1 1 SJ2 1.5 3.5 SJ3 1 2 SJ4 3.5 2 IM1 1 1 IM2 1 1

Top SSt mm/sec grade Bottom SSb mm/sec grade

Figure 4. SSt and SSb (mm/sec) grades of sample fabrics

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Results and discussion

6 5 4
Grade

3 2 1 0 AOTI % OMMC SJ1 4 3 SJ2 3 2 SJ3 3 2 SJ4 5 4 IM1 3 2 IM2 5 3

Figure 5. AOTI % and OMMC grades for sample fabrics

These results show that SJ1, SJ4 and IM2 have better moisture management properties as compared to the other sample fabrics of the study. These three fabrics are composed of 100% wool, wool/spandex and wool/biophyl and having single jersey structures

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Results and discussion

Thermal properties (Thermal and vapour resistance)

Mean Rct 0.035 0.03 0.025

(mK/W)

0.029

Mean Rct

0.02 0.015 0.01 0.005 0 SJ1 SJ2 SJ3 SJ4 IM1 IM2 Fabric code 0.009 0.008 0.007 0.011 0.013

Figure 8. Thermal resistance (Rct) of sample fabrics

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Results and discussion

Mean Ret 6 5 4.955 (m Pa/W)

Mean Ret

4 3 2.093 2 1 0 SJ1 SJ2 SJ3 SJ4 IM1 IM2 Fabric code 1.994 2.123 2.44 2.861

Figure 9. Water vapour resistance (Ret) of sample fabrics

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Conclusion The results and discussions demonstrate that wool and wool blends are the most suitable fabric to be used next to skin to achieve thermal comfort The fibre content, fabric construction and fabric thickness influence thermal comfort significantly. Therefore it can be concluded that 100% wool and wool blends with spandex and bamboo (SJ1, SJ2 and SJ4) in single jersey structure are more suitable to use next to skin than SJ4, IM1 and IM2. 100% cotton in single jersey structure can also be a good choice because it has lower thermal and water vapour resistance like SJ1, SJ2, and SJ3 but not in extremely hot environments like firefighting where body perspires heavily in liquid form and cotton is unable to provide better liquid moisture transfer properties like wool and wool blends to keep skin dry.

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