Effects of Environmental Conditions and Composition on the Electrical Properties of Textile Fabrics

Abstract

In our day to day life, the environmental conditions, and especially the temperature and humidity of the air that surrounds us, go unnoticed. However, in many cases, these parameters play an important role in the use of materials since they modify their electrical properties. It is necessary to predict what this behaviour will be as these environmental conditions can introduce or improve desirable properties in the material, especially of textiles. The nature of these is to be dielectric, and therefore have a minimal DC electrical conductivity that is currently impossible to measure directly, so a methodology has been proposed to obtain the DC electrical resistivity through the method of discharging a condenser. For this purpose, a system was developed based on a static voltmeter, a climatic chamber and a control and data capture units. In order to validate the proposed system and methodology a study using both is described in this work. The study made it possible to verify that the most influential factor in establishing the values of the electrical parameters of a textile material is the nature of the fibres of which it is composed, although the influence of environmental conditions in fibres is also significant.

The Importance of Respiratory Rate Monitoring: From Healthcare to Sport and Exercise

“…Several factors should be considered when developing smart clothing for hot environments and extreme environments in general. Not only may different sensors change their properties with environmental factors (e.g., temperature and humidity), but conductive wires may also be affected, depending on the fabric of the smart textile [228]. When dealing with the choice of suitable sensors, the use of fiber optic sensors is encouraged, as their performance is not affected by changes in relative humidity [229].…”

“…However, despite recent advances in the field of respiratory monitoring with fiber optic sensors [28,229], further research and development are needed to use this technology during real-life working activities [28,229]. In an attempt to characterize the performances of smart textiles in challenging environments, Torreblanca González et al [228] have developed a methodology for testing the effect of environmental factors on specific components of a smart textile. This methodology or similar approaches should be used to guarantee the correct functioning of smart garments designed for f R monitoring in challenging environments.…”

Influence of Relative Humidity on Electrical Properties of Textile Laminates

“…Materials made from the fibre of different nature have different values of electrical resistance due to different water vapour absorption [12,18,25]. The effect of the accumulated moisture content in the textile laminates on their electrical resistance (at a voltage of U = 500 V) is shown in Fig.…”

“…Conversely, higher moisture amount absorbed by the material could contribute to free charge carriers and influence the conductivity of the material. As a result, the resistivity of the material decreases with increasing relative humidity [8,9,12,13].…”

“…to prevent the accumulation of static charges [20]. The specific resistivity of textile materials increases with an increase in the synthetic fibre amount because many synthetic fibres used for textile fabrics are insulators with a resistivity in order of 10 15 Ω [12,21,22]. Textile materials are known for their ability to accumulate electrical charge; therefore, it is important to understand how to minimise the detrimental influence of static electricity.…”