Moisture absorption, mass loss and evaporative resistance of permeable clothing in a transient condition

• The water vapour resistance of clothing ensembles is not as commonly determined as dry thermal insulation. The measurement techniques are more complicated and the measurement values differ among laboratories. Due to complicated moisture transfer process through clothing ensemble, the moisture absorbed and evaporated varies in transient and steady state phases depending on properties, thickness of clothing, and environmental conditions. The purpose of this study was to measure moisture absorption inside hygroscopic underwear, hydrophobic and permeable outer wear as a function of time, to investigate mass loss from “skin” as well as from manikin, to quantify evaporative heat loss and total heat loss from manikin, to determine evaporative resistance of clothing. Manikin Tore was used by wearing wet “skin” to simulate sweating. Moisture content gain of the inner garment shows an exponential relation against time. Moisture in the outer permeable garment shows very small gain. On the contrary, mass loss directly from the wet skin decreases exponentially. The mass loss from the manikin is relatively stable throughout three test phases. The evaporative heat loss is about two thirds of the total heat loss from the sweating manikin. One hour measurement time is sufficient to get stable results while measuring the evaporative resistance of clothing ensembles with hygroscopic inner garment and permeable outer garment. The variation between the 1st hour and the 3rd hour is less than 5%. The length of transient period and measurement time requirement is dependent on the permeability, thickness of clothing ensembles and environmental conditions.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

transient condition

clothing ensemble

evaporative resistance

mass loss

moisture absorption

Publikations- och innehållstyp

art (ämneskategori)

ref (ämneskategori)