A Design Tool for Clothing Applications: Wind Resistant Fabric Layers and Permeable Vents

Abstract

A computational clothing design tool is used to examine the effects of different clothing design features upon performance. Computational predictions of total heat and mass transfer coefficients of the clothing design tool showed good agreement with experimental measurements obtained using a sweating thermal manikin for four different clothing systems, as well as for the unclothed bare manikin. The specific clothing design features examined in this work are the size and placement of air-permeable fabric vents in a protective suit composed primarily of a fabric-laminated polymer film layer. The air-permeable vents were shown to provide additional ventilation and to significantly decrease both the total thermal insulation and the water vapor resistance of the protective suit.

Investigation of thermal comfort properties of electrospun thermoplastic polyurethane fiber coated knitted fabrics for wind‐resistant clothing

“…[ 12 ] However, such low air permeability usually results in low water vapor transmission, which make these clothing uncomfortable especially when the wearer generates a lot of heat and sweat. [ 7 ] Instead of conventional coatings, applying an ultra‐thin water vapor permeable membrane can provide sufficient permeability properties without affecting the breathability and increasing the weight of the light jersey fabric. [ 13 ] For this aim, coating of nanofibers or nanofiber membranes onto knitted fabric could be used to improve the wind‐resistance properties.…”

“…Other options to develop wind-resistant fabric are using laminated and coated fabrics. [5] These structures both provide specific, tight, and dense structures [5][6][7][8][9][10] with low porosity. In lamination, first an adhesive is applicated as a coating, then layers are bonded to form the laminate.…”