Environmental Ergonomics 343

Y. Tochihara and T. Ohnaka

9 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effect of fabric air permeability on clothing ventilation

H i r o y u k i U e d a a'*, G e o r g e H a v e n i t h b
aOsaka Shin-Ai College, Osaka, Japan
bDepartment of Human Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

Abstract: Dry and evaporative heat losses of clothed people are highly affected by the air exchange between the clothing
microclimate and the environment. This air exchange, or clothing ventilation, is highly affected by the air permeability of the
fabric materials as well as the clothing design. To examine the effect of the air permeability of fabric on clothing ventilation, the
ventilation rate of three suits with identical design but with different air permeability (air resistance: 0.3 and 20.5 kPa. s- 1. m - 1,
and impermeable) was determined for subjects under the following conditions: standing still or walking, both in still air and in
air moving at 1 m s- 1. In addition tests were performed with the suit' s openings at neck and wrist cuffs both opened and closed,
under the same conditions, to determine the effect of the openings on ventilation. The microclimate ventilation was significantly
higher in the more permeable suit compared with the less permeable ones when standing with no wind and when walking with
wind. The air permeability of the two permeable suits increased ventilation significantly when walking with no wind and when
standing with wind. These increases in ventilation ranged from 30 to 90 1 min-1 and corresponded to the level of clothing
ventilation required to remove sweat produced as a result of light work. Compared to the suits with the openings tightened, the
suits with the collars and cuffs open showed greater ventilation, but this increase in ventilation made a smaller difference as the
air permeability of the fabric increased. These data imply that the air permeability of fabric can induce the proper dry and
evaporative heat loss for keeping comfortable under light-work conditions, provided that clothing apertures are considered as a
combined factor.
Keywords: Clothing ventilation, Air permeability, Dry heat loss, Evaporative heat loss

1. Introduction the users' requirements (e.g. corporate image,

Dry and evaporative heat losses of clothed people
are highly affected by air exchange between the
clothing microenvironment and the external
environment (1,3,4). It is well known that an
increase of the air exchange through the fabrics and
the apertures of the garment reduces the thermal
insulation and the evaporative resistance. This air
exchange is highly affected by the clothing design
and by the air permeability of the fabric materials.
As the design of the clothing is often restricted by
protective properties), the effective function of the
clothing's heat exchange often depends on air
permeability of the fabric materials. The aim of this
study was to examine the effect of air permeability
of fabric on clothing ventilation of a coverall
workwear combined with effect of open or closed
apertures at the collar and wrist cuffs.
2. Methods

One healthy male volunteered to participate in

*Corresponding author. E-mail: ueda@osaka-shinai.ac.jp this study. He was informed of the object and
(H. Ueda) procedures of the study before the experiments.
344
The subject wore three identically designed cover-
alls with different air permeability. The coveralls
were made of 100% polyethylene and were
impermeable (IM) to start with due to a poly-
ethylene polymer coating on the inner surface.
Pinholes were evenly made over the surface of two
of them and the density of the holes resulted in two
different air permeabilities. The air resistance of
the two permeable coveralls was 20.5 (P1) and
0.3 kPa. s - 1 . m-1 (P2), respectively. Under the
coveralls the subject wore light cotton underwear
and socks. Each coverall was tested in four
conditions, combining two movement conditions
with two air speed conditions. The two movement
types were standing still and walking at 1 m s-~ on
a motor-driven treadmill. The two wind conditions
were no wind and a head wind of 1 m s-~ which
was created by even sucking by two fans set up on
the back of a wind-tunnel. The measurements with
each set of clothes were also performed with the
collar and wrist cuffs opened and closed.
A complete set of combinations of the three
coveralls with different air permeability, wind/still
air conditions, standing/walking states and
open/closed apertures was tested. The tests in
each condition were replicated five times, and the
results were averaged. All of the tests were
performed in a climatic chamber at a temperature
of 15~ and relative humidity of 50%.
The air exchange rate between the clothing
microenvironment and ambient air was measured
using a tracer gas technique (1,4). Nitrogen was
flushed into the microenvironment under the
coverall to reduce the concentration of oxygen
from the natural level to approximately 10% using
a distribution tube system fixed to the skin. The
gas in the microenvironment was sampled using a
separate system of tubes, also fixed to the skin, and
sent to an oxygen analyzer. The rate at which the
oxygen concentration in the microenvironment
returned to its natural environmental level
(approximately 20.9%) was monitored over an
extended period of time after stopping the nitrogen
influx. The oxygen levels within this time
increased from 11% to natural levels in the form
of an exponential curve and the resultant rate of air
exchange was calculated using the following
equation.
O2(t ) -- A - B(O)e -Rt
where, O2(t) is the oxygen concentration (%) at
any given time t; A is the asymptotic value of
oxygen (20.9%); B(0) is a constant value such as
the difference between A - O2(t), at t = 0; and R
is the air exchange rate calculated using least
squares analyses.
Data were analyzed by one-way analysis of
variance to determine the effects of fabric air per-
meability on the clothing ventilation of the coveralls
with opened or closed apertures in each of the
conditions. Student's t-test was performed to deter-
mine the effect of apertures in each of the conditions.
The level of significance was set at p < 0.05.
3. Results
The data obtained are illustrated in Fig. 1 and
statistical descriptions are presented in Table 1. The
air permeability of the fabric increased the air
exchange rate significantly when walking under the
still air conditions and when standing still but with
the head wind. The percentages of increase relative
to the value for IM were up to 13% and up to 35%
for P1 and P2, respectively. Combined wind and
walking also increased the air exchange rate. The
percentages of increase with the wind relative to the
value under the still air were 42%, 46% and 50% for
IM, P1 and P2, respectively, when standing, and
were above 18% for IM, Pl and P2 when walking.
The increase in air exchange due to movement
tended to be proportionally greater in still air,
compared to wind. The walking effect reached
above 92% for IM, P 1 and P2 under still air, and the
increase due to walking was 61%, 54% and 50% for
IM, P1 and P2, respectively, under the wind
condition. Thus there was an interaction between
the wind effect and the walking effect.
The effect of opening apertures is clearly visible
in Fig. 1. The effect is larger the lower the air
permeability of the clothing, and is smaller for
walking than for standing. The air exchange rate
was significantly greater in the coveralls with open
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The air exchange rate for P2 did not differ

significantly in other conditions. The percentages
of increase with the apertures open were 14-
23 %, 7 - 2 0 % and 17% for IM, P1 and P2,
respectively.
There were similar differences in air exchange
rate among the three coveralls with opened
apertures to those with closed apertures. How-
ever, P1 and P2 with open apertures showed
smaller increases of air exchange rate induced by
the improvements in air permeability of the
fabric than those with the closed apertures. Each
of the coveralls with the open apertures showed
smaller percentage increases from walking com-
pared with when the apertures were closed in
each of the conditions.

4. Discussion

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of

Fig. 1. Air exchange rate for the three suits while standing
and walking with closed or open apertures (ap) in the two
wind conditions.
apertures at the collar and wrist cuffs than in those
with closed apertures for IM and P1 in all
conditions. There was a significant effect of open
apertures for P2 only when standing in the wind.
the air permeability of fabrics on clothing venti-
lation. Two levels of improvement in air per-
meability of fabric were investigated in this
experiment. As expected, it was observed that the
improvement in the air permeability of fabric led to
an increase in clothing ventilation. It was recog-
nized that the effect of air permeability on clothing
ventilation depended strongly on the wind, move-
ment and aperture condition, and that the greater air
permeability level, corresponding to average
materials used for women's suits (2), was usually
effective in providing improved clothing

Table 1
Air exchange rate (min- 1) for the impermeable coverall (IM), the less permeable one (P1) and the more permeable one (P2) with closed or open
apertures in the various conditions.

Closed apertures Opened apertures

IM P1 P2 IM P1 P2

Still air condition

Standing 2.2 _+ 0.1 2.4 _+ 0.2 2.8 _+ 0.2"** 2.7 _+ 0.2*** 2.8 _+ 0.3*** 3.0 _+ 0.3
Walking 4.2 _+ 0.2 4.6 _+ 0.3* 5.3 _+ 0.3*'** 5.0 _+ 0.3*** 5.1 _+ 0.3*** 5.6 _+ 0.1"**

Wind condition
Standing 3.1 _+ 0.1 3.5 _+ 0.2* 4.2 _+ 0.3*'** 3.7 _+ 0.2*** 4.3 _+ 0.2*'*** 4.9 _+ 0.5*'**'***
Walking 5.0 _+ 0.1 5.1 _+ 0.2 6.3 _+ 0.3*'** 5.7 _+ 0.2*** 5.8 _+ 0.2*** 6.6 _+ 0.3*'**

*p < 0.05 compared with IM; **p < 0.05 compared with P1; * * * p < 0.05 compared with the close apertures in the same condition.
346
ventilation. The clothing ventilation in the air
impermeable suits is caused by the convective
exchange arising from ducts at apertures of clothes
even if these apertures were closed. In the case of
the clothes made of air permeable fabric, the air that
penetrated through the fabric directly renewed the
air in the clothing microenvironment in addition to
the air exchange through the open apertures.
Clothing ventilation is linked to posture, move-
ment, wind, air layer width, apertures of clothes and
suppleness of fabric, as well as the air permeability
of the fabric (3). The wind, motion and open/closed
apertures influenced the natural and forced convec-
tion of the inside and outside layers of clothes in
this experiment. It was assumed that those influ-
ences consequentially induced the differences in the
amount of air exchanged through the fabric in the
various conditions. The interaction among those
factors was supposed to be complex. However,
the improvement of air permeability facilitated
the wind effect when standing at an air speed of
1 m s -1 but it had no definite influence on the
pumping effect by walking at 1 m s -1. The open
apertures restrained the effect of the air per-
meability of the fabric on the clothing ventilation.
The air exchange rate combined with the micro-
environment volume generally provides the Venti-
lation Index (1 min-1). The micro-environment
volume, the volume of air trapped within the clothes,
was estimated by the difference of the volumes of the
coverall and the subject's body, which were
calculated presupposing each part of them to be a
form of a cylinder (5). If the Ventilation Index was
calculated based on this volume, the amount of the
increases in Ventilation Index compared with IM
were 26 1 min-1 while walking under still air and
while standing under the wind for P1 with closed
apertures, and from 32 1 m i n - 1 while standing under
still air to 89 1 min-1 while walking under the wind
for P2 with closed apertures. The maximal amount
of vapour transport by clothing ventilation can be
calculated from the ventilation volume and the
difference between the humidity value in the
microenvironment and that in the ambient air,
assuming some conditions: the same concentration
of the microenvironment as saturated skin,
moisture transport of ideally mixed air in the
microenvironment, and so on. With reference to
our previous data (unpublished) concerning the
sweat rate when walking (30% gO2max ) for 30 min
at a neutral temperature, the increase in Ventilation
Index for P2 while walking under the wind equalled
the amount of air exchange which would be able to
remove the sweat on the body under the clothes. The
validity of the calculation was based on some
assumptions and regional differences in the sweat
rate were not considered.
5. Conclusion
Clothing ventilation is indispensable for dry and
evaporative heat losses in order to keep comfor-
table. Air exchange in clothes is caused by
convection, wind through the fabric and pumping
caused by walking/movement. An increase in the
air permeability of the fabric led to an increase in
clothing ventilation, but the effect of a small gain in
air permeability of the clothing depends on the
conditions. An improvement in air permeability
facilitated the wind effect on clothing ventilation,
but had little effective influence on the pumping
effect by the waking. The open apertures attenuated
the effect of air permeability of fabrics on clothing
ventilation. The improvement in air permeability of
fabrics shown in this experiment can induce the
proper evaporative heat loss under light work in
natural conditions.
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permeability of clothing material. Part 1. Air resistances of
clothing materials of the different end-uses. J. Home Econ. Jpn,
40: 797-804, in Japanese.
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ventilation, vapour resistance and permeability index: changes
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