Chapter 1: Comfort

1.1 Definition of comfort:

➢ According to dictionary, the definition of comfort is “a condition of

feeling of pleasurable ease, well-being& contentment(satisfaction).
➢ Comfort is sometimes defined as absence of discomfort. i.e. Absence of
pain, prickle, itch, hot, cold & disagreeable feelings.
➢ Widely acceptable definition is “freedom from pain & discomfort as a
neutral state.
➢ “Slater defined comfort as “a pleasant state of physiological,
psychological & physical harmony between human being & the
environment

1.2 Types/ classification of comfort:

Mainly divided into four groups:

1) Thermal or thermo-physical comfort.
2) Sensorial comfort
3) Garment Fit
4) Psychological comfort.

a) Thermal/ Thermophysical comfort:

➢ Thermal balance of human body (thermal balance means; heat generation

= heat loss.)
➢ Not cold, not warm, not sweating (when thermal balance exists).
➢ Factors affecting thermophysiological comfort are the heat loss or heat
gain by radiation, conduction, convection, evaporation, perspiration,
respiration, work load & environment.
➢ Thermophysiological comfort of clothing is much more complex to asses
when purchasing the clothing.
➢ It is dependent on the interactions between the human body, the clothing
and the environment.

b) Sensorial comfort:

➢ Feeling of skin/body about clothing worn.

➢ Prickling, itching. stiffness, softness etc.
➢ Related with thermo-physical comfort.
➢ Due to cling discomfort may arise if sweating occurs.
➢ Fabric properties like protruding fibres, fibres & yarn diameter, fabric
thickness etc.
affects the sensorial comfort.

c) Garment fit/ Ergonomic Comfort:

1
 ➢ Tightness or looseness of clothing when worn.
➢ Sizes of clothing ( loose , tight ).
➢ Loose fitting garment may be a cause of accident in working
environment.

d) Psychological comfort:

➢ Deals with aesthetic issues like color, construction, fashion etc.

➢ Reliability on protective clothing performance.
➢ Feelings with skin will be reduced

1.2.1. Difference between Physical and physiological factors of human body:

While physical and physiological both refer to bodies, physical means the body itself while
physiological refers to the body’s functions.
Physical development refers to the growth of the physical body, such as growth of hair, bones,
muscles, organs or any other physical aspect of a species. Physiological development, on the other
hand, refers to the body’s capacity to increase certain functions of the body. For example, a long-
distance runner over time builds strong muscles, a physical development, but he will also increase
his ability to transfer oxygen faster, a physiological development.

1.3 Function of Human clothing:

➢ People can’t survive in the civilized society without clothing.

➢ It has a number of functions like adornment, status, modesty & protection.
➢ Luxurious & well-fitting clothing enhance status.
➢ To hide faults in human body.
➢ Protects human life in extreme weather.
➢ Protects human body from different injuries (abrasion, radiation, wind,
electricity, chemical, microbiological and toxic substances).
➢ All these functions of clothing determine the subjective perception
(individual observation) of comfort.
➢ There are mainly 4 processes which determine the status of comfort of a
wearer:
1) Physical process: clothing and surrounding environment, such as
heat and moisture transport, reflection and absorption of light etc.
2) Physiological process: thermal balance of the body and its
thermoregulatory responses.
3) Neurophysiological process: Sensory signals from skin, eyes and
other organs.
4) Psychological process: The process of the brain which form
subjective perception of sensory sensation against past
experiences.
These four types of processes are occurring concurrently.

1.4 Human clothing system:

2
To understand the subjective perception of comfort Human-clothing system is
consider as an open system that is always in a state of dynamic interaction with
its surrounding environment in physical, sensory, psychological, and
informational means.

Figure: Human-clothing-environment system

3
 Chapter 2
Psychology and Comfort
2.1 Definition of Perception:
Perception is the process where our brain performs the organization of information it obtains from
the neural impulses and then begins translation and interpretation of them.
In other words,
After our five senses receive several stimuli that are sent to our brain as nerve impulses, our brain
interprets those impulses as a visual image, a sound, taste, odor, touch, or pain.
Perception involves both bottom-up and top-down processing. It involves bottom-up
processing since perceptions are built from our sensory input. On the other hand, it also involves
a top-down method since our available knowledge and experience influence how we interpret
those sensations.
2.1.2. Types of Perception:
a) Subjective Perception:
Subjectivity is a constant and integral part of the human experience. Love, lust, like,
dislike, taste, smell, views about beauty and ugliness and art. Subjective perception is an
opinion or judgement from personal experiences and view of life.
b) Objective Perception:
Objective perception means perceiving reality, all that confronts our awareness, as it is. It
is a matter of seeing things as they are, rather than seeing them from a certain point of
view or position.

2.1.3Difference Between Sensation and Perception:

The main difference between sensation and perception is that sensation is the process of
sensing our surrounding using the five senses while perception is the process of interpreting
the acquired sensations.

Sensation Perception
i. Process of receiving information via i. Process of interpreting the
our five senses, which can then be information acquired through the five
experienced and interpreted by the sense accordingly.
brain
ii. Source is the stimuli obtained from ii. Sources is the information sent to the
sensory organs brain through sensation.
iii. Results in perception iii. Results in interpreting and giving
meaning to the information received.
iv. A general biological procedure iv. Has more psychological significance
since the person’s past experiences
and ideologies affect directly.

4
2.2 The flow chart for subjective perception of comfort

2.3 Human heat balance:

Heat is a form of energy that flows from higher to lower direction.

Human burn food for energy & must discard the excess heat.
Excess heat is discarded by conduction, convection, radiation& evaporation process.
For health reason heat loss or heat gain must not occur too quickly.
Thermal equilibrium that is comfortable condition is maintained when heat loss is exactly
equal to heat generation .
Thermal heat balance can be expressed mathematically by the following equation:
Heat production = heat loss.

M-W = CV + CK + R + ESK + ERes + CRes

Where,
M = Metabolic rate (thermal heat production)
W = External work
CV = Heat loss by convection.
R = Heat loss by radiation
ESK = Heat loss by evaporation through skin

5
ERes = Evaporative heat loss by respiration.
CRes = Sensible heat loss by respiration.
CK = Heat loss by conduction. ( All units are W/m2)

2.4 Psychological Research Techniques

Human perception of clothing and external environment involves all the relevant senses and
has to aimed a series of concepts that we use to express these perceptions to each other. To
understand the psychological process, we need to measure these perceptions in subjective
ways. A subjective measure is the direct measure of the opinion of a person, which is the only
factor of interest in carrying out the measurements. Since there are no physical instruments to
measure what a wearer is thinking or feeling objectively, the only way to obtain the subjective
perceptions is by use of psychological scaling.
Hollies (1977) summarized six essential elements in psychological scaling:
• Commonly recognized attributes to measure. 

• Language (terms) to describe these attributes. 

• Assignment of a scale to indicate the level of attributes. 

• A rating panel to apply the rating scale to attribute measurement. 

• Appropriate data handling. 

• Comparison of results from psychological scaling and objective
measurement of the same attributes.

This indicates that the psychology of clothing comfort involves a number of research
techniques; these will be discussed in detail in subsequent sections. 


2.5 Comfort Sensory Descriptors- a word or expression used to describe or

identify something:

There are commonly recognized attributes(characteristics) and languages to describe the

attributes related to clothing comfort. These sensations may be expressed in different languages
and there are difficulties in interpreting the sensory descriptors from one language to another
with exactly the same meaning. However, it is obvious that there are a number of dimensions in
these sensory descriptors to describe our sensory experiences that are related to thermal,
mechanical, and fabric surface stimuli, implying that the study of human comfort sensations has
universal implications. For example, the polar pairs of descriptors for toweling fabrics include
soft-harsh, smooth-rough, cool-hot, light-heavy, fine-coarse, crisp-limp, clammy-absorbent,
natural- synthetic, sheer-bulk, clingy-flowing, crushable-resilient, lacy-plain, drapable-rigid,
scratchy- silky, and stiff-soft.
In 1998, Li carried out an investigation on the psychological sensory responses to clothing of
consumers living in different countries. A survey was conducted in three countries: Britain,
China, and USA. Twenty-six sensory descriptors were selected: snug-(cozy,homely), loose, stiff,
lightweight, staticky, nonabsorbent, stick, heavy, cold, damp, clammy, cling, pick, rough,
scratchy, cool, hot, soft, warm, wet, prickly, itchy, chill, sultry, tickling, and raggy (informal).

2.6 Psychophysics:
The branch of psychology that deals with the relation between physical stimuli and mental
phenomena.

6
Fechner originated psychophysics to describe the mathematical relationship between the conscious
experience of a sensation and an external physical stimulus.
Modern application rely heavily on threshold (meaning the magnitude or intensity that must be
exceeded for a certain reaction, phenomenon, result, or condition to occur or be manifested.)
measurement, ideal observer analysis and signal detection theory.

2.7 Laws of psychophysics:

Weber’s law: In 1834, Emst Weber proposed that the thresholds (i.e. the just noticeable
differences) of stimulus (∆Sp) are proportional to the magnitude or scale of stimulus, Sp. This is
known as Weber's law and can be expressed as:
∆Sp/Sp = K

where K % a constant indicating the power of a human being to detect signals and to
discriminate sensations. This law holds for many stimulus attributes down to about the absolute
threshold which is the smallest magnitude of stimulus that can be perceived.
Fechner’s law: Fechner (1860) proposed using 'just noticeable difference' as a unit to measure
intimal sensation. Fechner assumed that sensation RS increases as the logarithm of the physical
stimulus magnitude, SP; this is called Fechner's law and can be described as:

RS =K log SP

where K is a constant determined by the stimulus threshold, which represents the lowest physical
value eliciting a sensation, and the differential threshold providing a subjective unit of sensory
intensity. This law proposes that sensation increases in arithmetic steps as the physical stimulus is
increased in logarithmic steps.

Steven’s power law: Stevens (1953) developed a method of magnitude estimation, as an

experimental procedure to investigate the relationship between subjectively perceived intensity
and physical stimulus strength. This method was applied to a very large number of different
stimulus attributes. The results from each attribute conform roughly to an equation of the form:

RS= aSpb

where a is a scale factor and b an exponent characteristic of the attribute. This

equation is known as Stevens' power law.

2.8 Relation between these laws of psychophysics:

These psychophysical laws indicate that there is an essential distinction between the physical
stimulus(in physiology, a stimulus (plural stimuli or stimuluses) is a detectable change in the
physical or chemical structure of an organism's internal or external environment) and the
sensation(feeling) that one experiences. Weber's law and Fechner's law play some fundamental role
in sensory discrimination in terms of the ability to distinguish one stimulus from another, but fail
to provide a basis for measuring sensation. Stevens' law proposes a power relation between physical
stimulus magnitude and internal sensation which provides a 'direct' measurement of sensation in
sensory judgment processes.

7
2.9 Scales of Measurement:
In clothing comfort research, all four types of psychological scales have been applied. Nominal
scales have been used to code subjects such as gender, age, and place of living. Ordinal scales
have been used to obtain the rankings of fabrics or garments in consideration. The most frequently
used scales are the interval scales, which have been widely used to obtain the perception of various
attributes of clothing and which will be discussed in detail in the section following. Ratio scales
are mainly applicable to the data generated from physical instruments.

2.10 Wear Trial Technique:

Perceptions of sensory comfort of clothing may involve various sensory channels from all the
five senses: visual, auditory, smell, taste, and touch, but are mainly associated with skin sensory
systems. Many comfort sensations can only be generated under certain wear situations with the
existence of relevant physical stimuli. The physical stimuli such as heat, moisture, and
mechanical stimulation from fabric to the skin often can be generated only under specific
combinations of physiological states (e.g. sweating rate), fabric materials, garment fitness, and
environmental conditions (e.g. temperature, humidity, and air velocity). A large amount of
research work has been published on fabric sensory properties through hand. Human beings
often use hands to obtain tactile information as well as to manipulate objects. However, Stevens
reported that much of the tactile sensations come from parts of the body other than the hands.
This suggests that perception of comfort performance of clothing has to be studied in wear
situations. Therefore, wear trialing is an important technique for clothing comfort research.
On the basis of their research work on human perception and clothing comfort.
Hollies et al. developed a wear trial experimental technique to characterize the
sensory comfort of clothing. The technique included a number of components:
(i) generating sensory descriptors with respondents;
(ii) selecting testing conditions to maximize the opportunities for perception of various
sensations;
(iii) designing attitude scales in the way of rating sheets to obtain various sensory responses
to particular garments;
(iv) conducting wear trials in controlled environmental chambers according to predetermined
protocol;
(v) collecting data and analyzing and interpreting the results.

8
During the wear trial study the overall comfort sensations, thermal sensation and skin contact
comfort sensations of garments were rated by the wearers with different terms and scales. The
overall comfort sensations were expressed in seven scales, i.e. 1 – Very uncomfortable, 2 –
Uncomfortable, 3 – Slightly uncomfortable, 4 – Neither comfortable nor uncomfortable, 5 –
Slightly comfortable, 6 – Comfortable and 7 – Very comfortable. Statistical techniques have been
adopted for data analysis.

2.11 Overall Comfort Perception and Preferences:

Understanding how consumers perceive clothing and formulate their preferences is of compelling
interest to both researchers and manufacturers. The overall sensory perception and preferences of
a wearer to the clothing he or she wears are the result of a complex combination of sensory factors
that come from the integration of inputs from various individual sensory modalities such as
thermal, pressure and pain sensations. The individual sensory modalities are related to different
mechanical-physical attributes of the garments. The sensory perceptions are also influenced by the
psychological and physiological state of the individual wearers and the external environment. The
process of integration is critical for developing an understanding of the psychological picture of
clothing comfort. Subjective preference is further integration from inputs of the integrated sensory
impressions in reference with past experiences, psychological desires, and the physiological status
of the wearer, to form a final assessment of clothing. The integrated sensory impressions are highly
related to the sensory factors that are derived from the latent pattern in various sensations. The
relative contributions of the sensory factors to subjective preference may be different under
different wear situations, since the psychological and physiological requirements of a wearer to
clothing are dependent on specific combinations of the physical activities of the individual and the
external environmental conditions.

Physiology & body temperature:

➢ Human body always maintain constant core body temperature at 370C (98.60F) with
±0.50C tolerance under different climatic condition.
➢ Due to any reason, any variation of body core temperature from 370C causes higher
heat loss or heat gain to bring the body temperature back to 370C.
➢ The core temperature 370C is called set-point.
➢ Heat generation by human body is done by metabolic activity or oxidation of food.
➢ Production of heat by human body can be partially controlled by controlling metabolic
rate. Metabolic rate can be controlled by various physical activity levels.
➢ If the core temperature varies more than ± 0.50C from the set point, mental state &
physical operations are disturbed.
➢ Due to higher variation of core temperature physiological disorder or even death may
occur.
The physiological response at different core temperature is mentioned below:

Body temperature
0 0 Physiological response
C F
43.30 110 Brain damage
37.8 100 Sweating
37 98.6 Normal
<37 <98.6 Shivering
<32.2 <90 Speechless

9
 26.5 80 Stiff & deformed body
<26.5 <80 Irreversible body cooling (death)

➢ When the body temperature falls, the respiratory activity automatically increases and
generates more heat. The extreme symptom is shivering which can result five times
increase in metabolic rate.
➢ Human body has separate heat & cold sensors. If both types of sensors provide signal
of same magnitude we feel normal. If different, then we feel cold or warm.
➢ With the increase in body temperature, blood vessels in the skin are expanded
resulting more supply of blood to the skin surface. As a result skin temperature is
increased & heat loss is increased.
➢ In cold environment, blood vessels in the skin are squeezed resulting less blood
circulation in the skin area hence less temperature loss.
➢ When the body core temperature is increased, the sweat gland in the skin are
stimulated resulting in opening of the pores of the sweat glands and facilitates to pass
body fluids (sweat). The evaporation of sweat causes body cooling.
➢ Human body can tolerate or adjust at normal climate change but in extreme climate
change like frost bite or heat stroke may happen in extreme cold & extreme hot
condition. Even death may result if proper protective clothing is not worn.

10
 Chapter 3
Thermo Physiological Comfort

3.1 Thermal comfort:

Thermal comfort is the condition of mind that expresses satisfaction with the thermal
environment and is assessed by subjective evaluation. The human body can be viewed as a heat
engine where food is the input energy. The human body will generate excess heat into the
environment, so the body can continue to operate.
3.2 Thermoregulation in Human being:
There are 3 types of thermoregulation in human-
The autonomic regulation: The autonomic regulation responds to thermal disturbances from
internal heat generated by exercise and environmental heat or cold. Thermoreceptors receive
signals from the thermal disturbances and transfer them to the central nervous system via
afferent nervous pathways. The receptors can respond not only to temperature, but also much
more effectively to temperature change.

Behavior thermoregulation: Behavior thermoregulation in human beings is related to

conscious thermal sensations and emotional feelings of thermal comfort and discomfort.
Behavior thermoregulation to heat and cold modifies the need for autonomic
thermoregulatory responses

Technical thermoregulation: Technical thermoregulation can be considered as an extension

of the human regulatory system through technical inventions. The regulation of temperature
is shifted from the body to the environment with artificial sensors, controllers, and effectors.

Schematic diagram of autonomic temperature regulation in man

Here,

11
 Tsk is the average skin temperature
Tcn, is the central nervous temperature
Tdb is the extra-central deep body temperature
The references (or set temperatures) for different control actions such as metabolism,
vasomotion (Vasomotion is the spontaneous oscillation in tone of blood vessel walls,
independent of heart beat, innervation or respiration) and sweating, might be different. The
heat-dissipation mechanisms (type of: chilling, cooling, temperature reduction. the process of
becoming cooler; a falling temperature), such as sweating driven by warm receptors, may have
a higher set temperature than heat-production mechanisms driven by cold receptors. Therefore,
there is a zone of thermal neutrality in which no thermal regulation occurs.

3.3 A Two-node Model of Thermal Regulation

In two-node models, the human body is divided into two concentric shells of core and skin and
the temperature of each shell is considered uniform. Gagge’s model is a well-known example
of two-node thermal models. The model was developed in 1971 and improved in 1986. The
model is fit to simulate the skin and core temperatures under uniform and transient
environmental conditions with moderate activity levels. The body is simulated as two
concentric cylinders, the outer layer of skin and the inner cylinder that presents the body core.
In the two-node Gagge’s model, the temperature within each compartment is assumed to be
uniform. Skin and core temperatures are simulated with a physiological model that includes
heat transfers between two layers, and between the outer layer and the environment. The heat
transfer of the body is controlled by the thermoregulatory control functions for sweating,
vasodilatation (decrease in blood pressure) and vasoconstriction (increases blood pressure) and
shivering.

If more detailed temperature distribution is acquired, the body should be divided into more
than two nodes that will represent every tissue separately.

12
3.4 Role of clothing in thermal Regulation:

Clothing Materials
Dry heat transfer through clothing materials consists mainly of conduction and radiation. For
most clothing materials, the volume of air enclosed is far greater than the volume of the fibres.
Therefore the insulation is very much dependent on the thickness of the material.
Clothing Ensembles
When not only the materials are considered but the actual insulation of a material in a
garment, or when the clothing consists of more layers, the properties of the air layers between
and on the outside of the material layers become important.
Garment Movement.
The garment can move in the wind or due to movements of the wearer. The wind can
compress the garments, thereby decreasing its thickness, it can make the garment flutter and
thereby make the enclosed air layers move. Body movement of the wearer can do the same
things, and it can pump air between different clothing compartments and force its exchange
with the environment.
Metabolic Rate and Clothing
Clothing, apart from its effect on heat exchange, also affects metabolic rate. The weight of the
clothing adds to body weight (for some protective clothing this is above 15 kg) and as it is
carried results in an increase in metabolic rate in activities such as walking.

13
 CHAPTER 4
Physiology & body temperature

Moisture Exchange Between Fiber and Air:

It depends on the following factors-
• The Drying Behavior of Fabrics: The moisture exchange between a fiber and its
adjacent air is a complex process, depending on whether the moisture is present as liquid
on the fiber surface, or as vapor stored internally. The drying process of textile materials
has three distinct stages. In the first stage, a wet fabric adjusts its temperature and
moisture flows with its surrounding environment. The second stage is a 'constant drying
rate' period, in which the drying rate remains constant as the rates of heat transfer and
vaporization reach equilibrium. Liquid moisture moves within the fabric to maintain a
saturation condition at the surface. The third stage is a 'declined drying rate', during
which moisture flow to the surface is insufficient to maintain saturation and the plane
of evaporation moves into the fabric. Fibers begin to desorb moisture until equilibrium
is reached between the fabric and the environment.
• Evaporation and Condensation: Evaporation is exclusively a cooling process. At lower
temperature, evaporation plays an insignificant role in the human body heat balance. At
higher temperature, when heat loss by radiation and conduction cannot occur,
evaporation becomes the prominent factor for body heat loss. When each gram of water
evaporates from human body surface, 0.58 calories of heat is lost. Water evaporates
insensibly from the skin and lung, which causes continual heat loss at a rate of 12 – 16
calories per hour.
Condensation is the conversion of a vapour or gas to a liquid.
• Moisture Sorption and Desorption:
When the fabric water content is below the capacity (Saturation) redeem (Regain) of the
fiber, the exchange of water can be considered as a sorption or desorption process.
Sorption includes both adsorption (which means accumulation of a substance at
the surface of a solid or a liquid) & absorption (which means adjustment of a
substance within the bulk of a solid or liquid).
Desorption is a phenomenon whereby a substance is released from or through a surface.
The process is the opposite of sorption . This occurs in a system being in the state of
sorption equilibrium between bulk phase (fluid, i.e. gas or liquid solution) and an
adsorbing surface (solid or boundary separating two fluids). When the concentration (or
pressure) of substance in the bulk phase is lowered, some of the sorbed substance
changes to the bulk state.

BASIS FOR
ABSORPTION ADSORPTION
COMPARISON

Meaning The condition in which In this condition the

any substance (atoms,
ions or molecules) is
taken by or absorbed by
another substance,
especially in the solid
or liquid material.
substances like gas,
liquids or dissolved
solids loosely adhere or
stick to the surface of
another substance

14
 BASIS FOR
ABSORPTION ADSORPTION
COMPARISON

which can be solid or

liquid.

Kind of Bulk phenomenon Surface phenomenon

phenomenon

Reaction Rate The reaction occurs at The reaction rate

the uniform rate. increases slowly and
attains equilibrium.

Heat exchange Endothermic process. Exothermic process.

process

Concentration Does not change is The concentration

constant throughout the changes from bulk to
medium. the bottom of the
absorbent.

Temperature No effect of Adsorption works at the

temperature. lower temperature.

Application Cold storage, ice Air conditioning, water

production, turbine purification, synthetic
inlet cooling, resin, chillers
refrigerants.

Dynamic Heat and Moisture Transfer in Fabric

15
The coupled heat and moisture transfer in textile fabrics has been widely recognized as being
very important for understanding the dynamic thermal comfort of clothing during wear. Henry
developed a system of differential equations to describe the processes involved in dynamic
heat and moisture transfer in fabric. These equations involve conservation of mass and energy
and also fiber moisture content to the adjacent air.

Moisture Sorption of Wool Fabrics

Li and Holcombe studied the dynamic heat and moisture transport processes during moisture
sorption by setting-up an experimental apparatus, as shown in Fig. 5-4. In the experiment,
fabrics were equilibrated in a cell controlled at 20°C and 0% r.h. Then, the r.h. in the cell was
changed to 99%. The water content changes during sorption were obtained by weighing the
fabric continuously. The temperature changes in the fabric were also recorded by inserting
thermocouple wires into the surface of fabric samples

16
 CHAPTER 5
Factors affecting Dynamic (continuous and productive activity or change) heat and mass
transfer of clothing Properties of fibre:

➢ Chemical & physical properties of fibre & fibre content, in the yarn affect the behavior
of the fabric. Cost, quality, care & comfort are the consideration of a buyer before
purchasing clothing.
➢ Natural fibres are generally considered comfortable due to their better absorbency,
heat isolation, handle, luster etc. property.
➢ Man-made fibres have high strength, durability, dimensional stability, abrasion
resistance, good resistance against heat loss, providing warmth, bulkiness, soft feeling,
less moisture absorbency etc.
➢ Although man-made fibres are less comfortable, considering their low cost and other
good properties , textile producers are using them in apparel products.

Cotton:
➢ Cotton is naturally comfortable due to their inherent properties such as hollow fibre,
soft, cool, absorbent, breathable etc.
➢ Cotton can hold water up to 27 times of its own weight.
➢ Since cotton fibre wrinkles, mixing with synthetic fibre e.g. polyester improves the
situation.

Wool:
➢ Wool is a natural hair fibre with senses of warmth.
Excellent property of comfort due to higher hygroscopicity (is the tendency of a solid
substance to absorb moisture from the surrounding atmosphere).
➢ It can absorb moisture upto 30 times than their own weight.
➢ Have natural crimp which creates air pocket hence higher resiliency & thermal
resistance property.
➢ Good crease recovery property.
➢ Highly breathable, hence suitable for breathable fabric and clothing production.
➢ Most suitable for cold environment.
➢ Have good natural flame retardency property also.

Silk:
➢ Natural protein fibre with excellent luster, light weight, good moisture absorbency,
good strength & elegance.
➢ Silk clothes are expensive, versatile, washable & comfortable for good summer
clothes.

Micro-fibre:
➢ Fibre fineness less than or equal to 1 decitex are called microfiber.
➢ Acrylic, viscose, polypropylene, polyester, nylon etc. fibres are produced as
microfiber.
➢ Micro-fibre shows remarkable properties like softness, luster, handle, good drapability,
bulkiness.
➢ They are shrink resistant, washable, dry-cleanable, non-electrostatic and non-allergic.
➢ They insulate well against wind, rain & cold.

17
Hollow fibre:
➢ The tubular x-sectional fibres with one or more holes are called hollow fibre.
➢ The hollow fibres have following properties which are thought more advantageous
than solid fibres.
➢ More resiliency, more bulky & better cover (cover factor high- Cover factor is a
number that indicates the extent to which the area of a fabric is covered by one set of
threads. For any woven fabric, there are two cover factors: a warp cover factor and a
weft cover factor.).
➢ Higher heat insulation, light weight, higher absorbency of perspiration/water.
➢ Used for underwear due to higher breathability, comfortability, lightweight & softness.
➢ It is also used for reverse osmosis, hemodialysis, micro-filtration, water cleaning
system & gas separation.
Reverse osmosis: a process by which a solvent passes through a porous membrane in the
direction opposite to that for natural osmosis when subjected to a hydrostatic pressure
greater than the osmotic pressure.
Hemodialysis: Hemodialysis is a procedure where a dialysis machine and a special filter
called an artificial kidney, or a dialyzer, are used to clean your blood.

Properties of yarn:

➢ Yarn count, spinning technique, pore size in yarn, blend ratio etc. properties of yarn
influences thermal insulation, vapor permeability, air permeability, bending rigidity,
evenness, frictional property, strength etc.
➢ Increase in yarn coarseness result in increase in fabric thickness & fabric thermal
resistance.
➢ Increase in yarn fineness result in decrease in fabric thickness, thermal resistance,
thermal conductivity but water vapor permeability increases.
➢ Fabric produced from highly twisted yarn shows lower wickability.
➢ Thermal property of fabric is highly dependent on yarn structure, fibre x-section &
fibre content in the blend.
➢ Fabric with air-jet yarn shows higher air permeability, vapor permeability, higher
absorbency & thermal insulation over ring spun yarn.
➢ Fabrics made from compact yarn are more brilliant, glossy, smooth handle & better
pilling behavior.
➢ The bulky structure of textured yarn causes a more porous construction, hence good
thermal insulation, soft & spongy feeling.
➢ Fabrics produced from textured yarn are warmer.

2.3) Comfort properties of fabric structure:

➢ Fabric constructional parameters like weave pattern, yarn count, thickness, weight per
square meter etc. affects the comfort parameters of clothing.
➢ Plain weave feels smooth, lustrous & warmer than twill weave.
➢ Plain weave fabric shows lower shear & bending resistance than twill weave.
➢ Woven fabric shows cooler feeling than knitted fabric.
➢ Coarser fabric increases fabric weight, feels warmer due to higher thermal resistance.
➢ Coarser fabric shows lower softness & smoothness.
➢ Coarser fabric increases weight of clothing which reduces comfort of clothing.

18
 ➢ Fabric finishing like water resistance, flame retardency, crease resistance, anti-
bacterial resistance, etc. chemical finishes on fabric affects the handle property of
fabric & hence reduces comfort property.
➢ For example, water proof finishing reduces the capillary channels of the fabric, hence
reduces breathability thus reduces the comfort property of clothing.
➢ Pigment printing stiffens the fabric hence reduces comfort.

( a ) Radiation :
➢ Heat loss may occur from warmer surface and heat gain may occur in cooler surface.
➢ All bodies and surfaces emit thermal radiation and loss of heat by radiation occurs in
the form of infrared wave.
➢ Radiation is the net exchange of radiant energy between two bodies across an open
space in the direct line of sight.
➢ An example is, in the direct sunlight human body feels warm due to heat gain through
radiation process but if under the shadow of a tree, does not feel warm as because
radiation from sunlight can not occur.
➢ Heat loss or gain by radiation process from human body depends on surrounding
temperature. If the surrounding temperature is less than the human body temperature,
then heat loss by radiation will occur feeling cool
➢ During hot season , the reverse situation may occur if surrounding temperature is more
than body temperature.
➢ A nude person staying in a room at normal temperature may loss about 60 % of the
total heat by radiation.

( b ) Convection:

➢ Heat loss or gain by convection process from human body depends upon the
surrounding air temperature and air movement.
➢ Air passing over the skin
➢ surface not only evaporates moisture but also transfer sensible heat to or from the
body.
➢ The faster the rate of air movement, the more the convective heat loss.
➢ The larger the body surface area, the greater the rate of heat loss.

(c) Conduction :
➢ With direct contact of the human body with physical objects such as chair, floor etc
conductive heat loss or gain occurs.
➢ Conduction allows us to loose or gain heat when lying, or sitting on floor or other
surfaces.
➢ Clothing slows down conductive heat loss
➢ Clothing also acts as insulator

(d) Evaporation:
➢ Evaporation is exclusively a cooling process.
➢ At lower temperature, evaporation plays an insignificant role in the human body heat
balance.
➢ At higher temperature, when heat loss by radiation and conduction can not occur,
evaporation becomes the prominent factor for body heat loss.
➢ When each gram of water evaporates from human body surface, 0.58 calories of heat
is lost.

19
 ➢ Water evaporates insensibly from the skin and lung, which causes continual heat loss
at a rate of 12 – 16 calories per hour.
➢ When human are highly active, more metabolic heat is produced with a corresponding
increase of evaporating heat loss.
➢ A person engaged with hard physical work may sweat as much as 0.25 gallon of fluid
in an hour.
➢ The flow rate of sensible heat loss depends upon the temperature difference between
body skin and surrounding air.
➢ Depending on the surrounding temperature , humidity, and air velocity, the skin may
very from 4◦c to 41 °c even though the body core temperature remain constant.
➢ Velocity of surrounding air increases evaporative heat loss rate from human body.
Factors affecting metabolic rate:
Metabolic rate
Activity
Met W/m2
Sleeping 0.7 40.7
Seated & reading 0.9 52.4
Seated & writing 1.0 58.2
Seated typing / talking 1.2 69.8
Cooking 1.6 93.1
House cleaning& ironing 2.0~3.4 111.4~197.9
Shopping 1.4 81.5
Dancing 2.4~4.4 139.7~256.1
Walking (2 mph) 2.0 116.4
Walking (3 mph) 2.6 151.3
Walking (4 mph) 3.8 221.2
Car driving 1.5 87.3
Motor cycling 2.0 116.4
Heavy vehicle driving 3.2 186.2
Wrestling 5.0~7.6 291~442

Not only physical activity level, but there are also other factors which affects metabolic rate
are described below:
a) Age: The metabolic rate for child’s are higher than the old people due to body growth.
It is peak at 10 years of age.
b) Exercise: Due to exercise metabolic rate increases dramatically.
c) Body weight & surface area: Metabolic rate increases with the increase of weight &
with the increase of skin surface area .
d) Food consumption: Due to consumption of large quantity of food, metabolic rate
starts increasing within 1 hour & continue about 3-12 hours.
e) Sympathetic stimulation: Due to sudden reason metabolic rate may increase.
f) Climate condition: Metabolic rate increases in cold weather & decreases in hot
weather.
g) Sleeping: During sleeping due to lowest physical activity level, metabolic rate reduces
about 10%.
h) Fever: The metabolic rate increases with fever.
i) Malnutrition: In malnutrition, there is a paucity of necessity of food substances in the
cell. The metabolic rate decreases upto 20-30%.

20
 j) Physical condition: The metabolic rate increases up to 10% for pregnancy & breast
feeding.
k) Heavy clothing: Due to wearing heavy clothing in cold weather or any other reason
metabolic rate may increase upto 10-15%.

Effect of environment temperature

All the individual mechanisms of heat flux (W/m2), i.e. total heat flux, conduction, radiation
and moisture diffusion, decrease with the increase in environment temperature, hence heat flux
decreases with the decrease in the driving force. In the case of fabric surface temperatures, the
inner surface is less sensitive than the outer surface.

Effect of microclimate thickness

The total heat flux and individual heat transfer mechanisms, moisture fraction at the inner and
outer fabric surfaces, and temperature at the inner and outer surfaces of fabrics decrease with
the increase in microclimate thickness. The decrease in heat flux is the result of increased air
layer which behaves like an insulating material. The contribution of radiation increases with the
increase in microclimate thickness, since radiation is independent of microclimate thickness
while the fabric surface temperature is lowered.

Effect of fabric thickness

The total heat flux varies about 20% when fabric thickness changes from 0.5 to 5 mm. The
lower variation in total heat flux compared to the variation in microclimate thickness is due to
the fact that the thermal conductivity of fabric is larger than the air layer between skin and
clothing (i.e. microclimate) and, hence, the result is less sensitive to fabric thickness than
microclimate thickness. The effect of fabric thickness is larger when the thickness of
microclimate is smaller.

Effect of layering of fabrics

Resistances offered by clothing during transmission of heat and moisture vapour are two most
important characteristics of clothing which control the thermal comfort. Proper understanding
of dynamic transmission.
Behavior of these two clothing properties is very important during the selection of clothing for
specific end uses and designing of functional clothing assemblies. Clothing can be of two types:
• tight-fitting inner garment and
• a loose-fitting outer garment as shown in Figure
When a clothed person walks through a windy environment the loose outer garment generally
flaps, pumping out warm air and moisture vapour from the air gap between the tight-fitting
inner garment and the loose fitting outer garment and replacing it with cooler air from the
surrounding environment, and at the same time wind may penetrate through the pores.

21
 Figure: Heat and mass transfer from human body covered with tight-fit and loose-fit
garments.

The actual mechanism of dynamic heat and mass transfer through clothing system is generally
very complicated. In order to simplify the analysis under steady state, one can consider the dry
heat flow through clothing as consisting of two parts: the first part is induced by conduction,
convection and radiation, and the other part induced by air ventilation and wind penetration.
Similarly the heat flow due to moisture evaporation can also be regarded as consisting of two
parts: the part induced by diffusion and convection and the other part induced by air ventilation
and wind penetration

22
 Chapter 6

PHYSICAL MECHANISMS OF TEIMPERATURE AISD MOISTURE SENSATIONS

(Psychological comfort)

6.1 Transient Temperature and Moisture Sensations:

The transient state refers to a non-constant flow of energy. This changing rate of heat transfer
could be due to fluctuating temperature difference over the medium or changing properties
throughout the medium. in transient heat transfer, the temperature within an object itself
keeps changing with time. Thermal and moisture-related sensations contribute to the overall
perception of comfort experienced during wearing.
In modem living conditions, many workplaces and modes of transport are climate controlled,
so the demand for warm clothing has been substantially reduced. As a result, most of our
clothing is often in contact with the skin. Consumers are now more conscious of the sensory
perceptions against the garments that they are wearing.

6.2 Coolness to the Touch

Fabric coolness to the touch is a skin sensation that is related to the transient heat and
moisture transfer between fabric and skin. This sensation has a significant impact on the
perception of comfort in warm and hot environments.

6.3 Warmth

The warmth of clothing refers to three relatively independent but related aspects:

• the thermal insulation of clothing under steady-state

• the thermal insulation of clothing under transient conditions,
• the warm sensation during fabric-skin contact.

The sensation of warmth to the touch is the opposite to the concept of coolness to the touch

The thermal insulation under transient conditions is related to the concept of heat of sorption,
which influences the thermal insulation value of the garments and the thermal sensation to the
wearer under dynamic wear situations.

6.4 Dampness

Moisture in clothing has been widely recognized as one of the most important factors
contributing to discomfort sensations. he skin wetness contributed to the sensation of
humidity, and that the sensation of dampness was related to the amount of sweat accumulated
in clothing. The subjective sensations of skin and clothing wetness were recommended as
sensitive criteria for evaluation of the thermal function of clothing.

23
6.5 Clamminess and Moisture Buffering During Exercise

Hygroscopic fibers have the ability to absorb a considerable amount of moisture from the
surrounding atmosphere. With humidity transients, hygroscopic fibers can absorb or desorb
moisture from, or to, the adjacent air, which can delay the moisture change in the clothing
microclimate. Theoretically, this effect often acts as a buffer( against sudden humidity
changes in favor of the wearer.

When sweating starts, highly hygroscopic fibers absorb considerable amounts of sweat and
their temperature rises due to the heat of sorption released. The elevated fabric temperature
interacts with the body, stimulating higher skin temperature and raising sweat rate.

The sorption of moisture and the released sorption heat by weakly hygroscopic fibers such as
polyester are very low

Most of the sweat in the garment was present as liquid and it had a smaller influence on the
dry heat loss at the outer surface of the garments. Therefore, the role of clothing made from
weakly hygroscopic fibers is more passive and its enhancement of heat loss during exercise is
smaller.

6.6 Environmental Buffering

The buffering effect of hygroscopic clothing has significant impact on the thermal balance and
comfort of the wearer during the humidity transients due to environmental changes. Often, a
wearer experiences various sudden and large changes in the external thermal environment. For
instance, a wearer may be exposed to differences in temperature and humidity greater than 10°C
and 30% r.h. when walking from an air-conditioned indoor environment to a hot and humid
summer outdoor environment. The difference in temperature between an air-conditioned indoor
environment and an outdoor winter environment in the cold regions can be greater than 20°C.
Clothing is an extremely important barrier to protect the body against such sudden
environmental changes.

The Neurophysiological Basis of Sensory Perceptions

Sensory Receptors are-

• Skin Receptors: Human skin is the interface between the human body and its
environment There are three major stimuli: (i) mechanical contacts with external
objects, (ii) temperature changes due to heat flow to or from the body surface, and (iii)
damaging traumatic and chemical insults. In responding to these stimuli, the skin
receptors produce the sensations of touch, warmth or cold, and pain
• Mechanoreceptors: there are two groups of mechanoreceptors: (i) encapsulated
receptors including Pacinian corpuscles, Meissner corpuscles, Krause endings and
Ruffini endings, which are all innervated by fast-conducting myelinated fibers; (ii)

24
 receptors having an organized and distinctive morphology such as the hair follicle
receptors and Merkle discs.
• Thermoreceptors:another group of sensory receptors detects the temperature of the
skin. These receptors can respond to both constant and fluctuating skin temperatures.
The cold receptors have a peak sensitivity of around 25-30°C . The warm receptors
have a peak sensitivity of around 39-40°C
• Nociceptors: Nociceptors are another group of sensory receptors, which respond to
noxious stimuli such as heating the skin, strong pressure, or contact with sharp or
damaging objects. The receptors have relatively high thresholds.

25
 Chapter 7

FABRIC MECHANICAL PROPERTIES AND TACTILE-PRESSURE SENSATIONS

Fabric Prickliness:
Prickle and skin reactions are important comfort factors related to a fabrics handle and
performance. Prickle results from fibre ends on the fabric surface indenting the skin sufficiently
to activate pain receptors. The handle characteristics of wool fabric is influenced by the fineness
of the fibres in the fabric structure - the coarser the fibre the greater the chance of prickle. Fibre
length is also likely to influence prickle, since it will affect the number of fibre ends per unit
area of fabric surface.
Test of Prickliness
Matsudaria (1990) compared three techniques
for measurement of a fabric prickle:
(i) low pressure compression testing,
(ii) laser counting of protruding fibers, and
(iii) a modified audio pick-up method.
Audio pick-up technique is the most effective
measure of fabric prickle and the result obtained
from this instrument correlated well with the
subjective perception of fabric prickle

Testing of Prickliness

• The fabric surface was traversed under a stationary audio stylus, from which signals were
obtained from the contact between the stylus and protruding fiber. Two classical models
– a loaded cantilever and an Euler column – were used to calculate the pointing force and
critical buckling load as shown in Fig. The critical buckling load, PE of the protruding
fiber ends has been identified as the stimuli responsible for triggering the pain receptors,
and can be expressed as: PE=π2 (EI/4l) where E is the Young’s modulus of the fiber; I is
the moment of inertia (I = πd4 /64) in case of a circular rod; and l is the length of
protruding fiber ends
• The equation suggests that fibre Young’s modulus, fibre diameter and fibre length are the
key factors determining fabric prickliness.

• Buckling can be defined as the sudden large deformation of structure due to a slight
increase of an existing load under which the structure had exhibited little.) The critical
buckling load is the greatest load that will not cause lateral (sideways) deflection
or(buckling)

26
Fabric Itchiness:
Perception of itchiness correlated with fiber diameter, fabric thickness at low and high
pressures, and fabric surface roughness. A prickling and itching both sensations were classified
in the tactile sensory factor. Therefore, it could be expected that the factors influencing fabric
prickle would affect fabric itchiness as well.
Fabric Stiffness
Subjective ratings of garment stiffness are related to three types of mechanical properties:
(i) fiber diameter and tensile breaking load;
(ii) fabric compression properties such as thickness at low and high pressure, the energy
of the compression-thickness curve, the slope of the compression-thickness curve, and the
resilience of the compression-thickness curve; and
(iii) fabric frictional properties such as the mean friction coefficient and the mean
deviation of friction coefficient.
Fabric Softness
Fabric softness has multiple meanings that can be related to compression and/or to smoothness
and flexibility of fabrics, depending on the fabrics being handled and end-uses. Subjective
perception of garment softness during wear correlated with fabric compression properties
(thickness at low and high pressures, resilience, and energy of the compression-thickness
curve), fabric tensile properties (the maximum elongation, and linearity of the load-elongation
curve), fiber diameter, and breaking load. These reflect the three aspects of fabric softness
identified by previous researchers: compression, flexibility, and smoothness.
Fabric Smoothness, Roughness, and Scratchiness
As a fabric is moved across the skin, displacement of skin is increased and the perception of
fabric roughness or smoothness is evoked. The friction and mechanical interaction between
fabric and skin during contact are the key factors determining the perception of roughness,
smoothness, and scratchiness. It has been identified that roughness and scratchiness are
important tactile sensations determining the comfort performance of next-to-skin wear. The
friction between skin and fabric is smaller with a fabric having a smooth surface than with a
fabric having a rougher surface. Moisture at the skin surface can alter the intensity of fabric
roughness perceived. As moisture content increases, the friction and displacement of skin
increases, which triggers more touch receptors. Therefore, a fabric that is perceived to be
comfortable under low humidity conditions may be perceived to be uncomfortable under higher
humidity conditions or sweating conditions.
Garment Fit and Pressure Comfort
The fitness of the garments can be defined in the following way

The girth of garment − The girth of naked body

The fitness of garment =
The girth of naked body

27
Other Factors related to garment fit
• Air gap thickness (Example: Tighter fitting garments are preferable to keep the body
warm in windy.).
• Garment ventilation (Air permeability and trapped air)
• Fluctuating microclimate in loose-fit garment (Example: rapid fluctuation of relative
humidity of microclimate the surface temperature of cotton garment fluctuates
significantly, whereas in case of polyester garment the fluctuation was smaller than
cotton.)
• Garment pressure sensation (The external forces exerted by human body are balanced
by fabric internal stresses (tensile, shear and bending) and the inertia force of the
garment during body movement.)

Measurement of garment fit

❖ “Croney” defined anthropometry as ‘the practice of measuring the human body’. He

also recommended that the static and dynamic anthropometric data will provide the
designer with an armature of dimensions around which ideas can grow. Pheasant
expands this definition to ‘applied anthropometrics’, which include numerical data
concerning size, shape and other physical characteristics of human beings that could be
applied in the design context.

❖ Traditionally tailors have accurately measured the human body size for garment making
with measuring tape based on their experience. They recognized similarities between
the garments they made for individuals and began to think in terms of proportionally
scaled patterns for people of different sizes, known as “graded” sets of clothing sizes.

❖ As a 3D laser scanning is a process used to build a digital 3D copy of a physical body

surface very accurately without touching. This system generates the accurate body size
of a person in seconds. At present this technology is used for different purposes, namely
apparel design (protective wear, wearable technology, thermal comfort, athletic
equipment/uniform, mass communication); ergonomics (validation of models, seat
design); reverse engineering (finite element analysis solution, rapid prototyping,
standard/tolerance); and biomedical applications (obesity determination, body
asymmetries, rehabilitation engineering).

28
 Figure: Schematic diagram of 3D laser scanning system of body size measurement.

Figure shows the principle of 3D laser scanning system of human body size measurement. The
system consists of two primary components:
(i) A hardware system which consists of charge coupled device (CCD) camera, laser
source and computer, and
(ii) image recognition software.

• It can be observed from Fig that the scanning assembly consists of a structural frame
to keep the scanning devices in their required positions.
• Curtains are generally hung from the frame to minimize the interferences of outside
light.
• The vertical columns, located in the four corners, are containing the scanning
assemblies. The scanning assembly (shown in enlarged view) consists of a laser and
two CCD cameras.
• All the four scanning assemblies are connected with an elevator assembly that travels
up and down in the vertical columns.
After the proper calibration, all the four elevator assemblies travel downward direction in
unison and sweep the scanning zone with a horizontal plane of laser light. During this process
the laser light illuminates the contour of the human body standing within the scanning area and
the CCD cameras record discrete points on these contours at each horizontal point. The total
scanning process takes few seconds.
The data from the CCD cameras are then transmitted to the computer through the A/D
converter and the image recognition software finally creates a point cloud representation of
the body contour. The point cloud data are then used for the representation of human body
size.

PREDICTABILITY OF CLOTHING COMFORT PERFORMANCE

Prediction of Fabric Hand:
On the basis of the fundamental work on fabric mechanical properties and fabric hand,
Kawabata (1973) developed the KES-F system, which has been described in many
publications. The system uses four instruments manufactured by Kato Tekko Co., Kyoto,
Japan:
I. KES-FB 1 tensile and shear tester,

II. KES-FB 2 bend tester,

III. KES-FB 3 compression tester, and

IV. KES-FB 4 surface-friction and geometrical-roughness tester.

Prediction of Clothing Thermo physiological Comfort

29
Thermal conductivity, thermal resistivity and thermal absorptivity are some of properties which
are measured for heat transfer through clothing.
Thermal conductivity
Thermal conductivity is fundamental to determine the heat transfer through fabrics. For
textile materials, still air in the fabric structure is the most important factor for
conductivity value, as still air has the lowest thermal conductivity value when compared
to all fibers (λair=0.025). Therefore, air transports a low quantity of energy by
conduction and thermal conductivity decreases as well.

Thermal resistance
Thermal resistance expresses the thermal insulation of fabrics and is inversely
proportional to thermal conductivity. In a dry fabric or containing very small amounts
of water it depends essentially on fabric thickness and, to a lesser extent, on fabric
construction and fiber conductivity.

Thermal absorptivity
Thermal absorptivity is the objective measurement of the warmcool feeling of fabrics
and is a surface related characteristic. If the thermal absorptivity is high, it gives a cooler
feeling at first contact with the skin. The surface character of the fabric greatly
influences this sensation. Also various type of instrument has been used for measuring
thermal properties of fabrics. The methods used for this purpose are discussed below.

Cooling method
In this method, a hot body is surrounded by fabric whose outer surface is exposed to air
and the rate for the cooling of the body is determined. This method was used by Black
and Mathew with a “katathermometer”.

Disc method
The fabric is held between a heat source and a heat sink at different temperatures and
the flow of heat is measured by a thin disc. This gives the value of thermal
transmissivity under particular conditions in the experiment. Since the fabric is
compressed, it contains less air than under normal conditions during wear. Hence, the
results that are obtained would only pertain to the particular apparatus and the pressure
applied.

Water vapour permeability Prediction:

There are many different methods described in the literature for measuring the
water vapour permeability of breathable textiles: some are national standards
(CGSB49 BS, 7209, etc.) and others have been independently developed by clothing
manufacturers, often to show their own products more favourably. The most common
and simplest approach is that of the cup or dish method, of which there are two basic
types, both based on weight change (Dohlan 1987) as shown in Fig.
1. The Desiccant Method, where a sample is sealed to the open mouth of a dish
containing a desiccant, such as calcium chloride or calcium acetate, and the
assembly placed in a controlled atmosphere. The weight gain of the assembly
with time as moisture is attracted to the desiccant is used to determine the
permeability (ASTM E96-80A/C/E, 1980).
2. The Water Method, where a sample is sealed to the open mouth of a vessel
containing water. This is then placed in a controlled atmosphere, either upright

30
or inverted depending on realism and sample type. A further modification is to
interpose a microporous membrane or an air gap between the water and the
sample. The weight loss with time is used to determine the rate of water
vapour migration.

Fig: Water vapour permeability – cup method

The main test variables which influence water vapour permeability are the
temperature and relative humidity at each surface of the sample. These are also
influenced by the still air layers on both sides of the assembly. In general, the
water vapour permeability is given by:

31