This study presents an experimental investigation of the relationship between liquid surface tension and fabrics water retention in dehydration processes such as centrifuging, line drying and heat drying. Selected surfactants were used to prepare wash baths with different surface tension, and dehydrating experiments of cotton fabric after immersion in above bath were conducted. The results showed that lower surface tension is beneficial to reducing fabrics water retention by centrifuging and improving line drying efficiency and heat drying efficiency. It was assumed that water with low surface tension is easy to drop down or separate from fabric, thus improving the de-watering and drying efficiency.

The performance of heat transfer coefficient, wicking and water vapour permeability (WVP) of cotton fabric were tested after adding amino-functional silicone softening agent in simulating process of home laundry. Meanwhile, the experiment of line drying of fabric soaked in water after spinning was designed to study the impact of soft nursing care on drying efficiency of fabric. The result showed that with the amino-functional silicone softening agent added, handle was improved obviously. With the concentration of softening agent increasing, WVP of fabric increased, while heat transfer coefficient had the opposite result. Wicking effect increased slowly at the beginning and decreased sharply later. It was found that soft nursing care improved the drying efficiency.