Effects of fabrics with dynamic moisture transfer properties on skin temperature in females during exercise and recovery

Abstract

Based on the physiological nature of breast movement in exercising females, a sports bra made of fabric with dynamic moisture transfer properties was developed to improve female thermal comfort. This study aimed to investigate the effects of fabrics with dynamic moisture transfer properties on breast skin temperature, and the thermal physiological and psychological response of women while wearing the sports bra during exercise and recovery. Ten healthy women exercised in random order with two types of sports bra with or without the dynamic moisture transfer properties and then performed a 20-minute short-duration high-intensity exercise and rest to recover under thermoneutral conditions. Heart rate, body core temperature, skin temperature, body mass and thermal psychological subjective sensations were investigated during exercise and recovery. The results indicated that in the running state, the local breast skin temperatures of sports bra made of fabrics with dynamic moisture transfer properties (33.427 ± 0.087℃) are significantly lower than bras without these dynamic moisture transfer properties (33.964 ± 0.055℃) ( P < 0.01). During the exercise and recovery, the thermal psychological subjective sensation for the two types of fabrics were very similar, whereas the body mean skin temperature was revealed to undergo greater decreasing effects in sports bras made of fabrics with dynamic moisture transfer properties than those without the dynamic moisture transfer properties ( P < 0.05). These results provide novel information that usage of fabrics with dynamic moisture properties in sports bras could improve thermoregulation to benefit exercising women’s thermal comfort in terms of decreasing local breast skin temperature.

Moisture-management properties of bi-layer knitted fabrics for sportswear

“…Clothing must have the ability to manage the amount of sweat (sensible and insensible) produced and the level of evaporation. The good properties of moisture transfer in clothing may decrease skin wetness and increase sweat evaporation, and therefore benefit thermoregulation during exercise [6,7].…”

Mid-infrared emissivity of nylon, cotton, acrylic, and polyester fabrics as a function of moisture content

“…Taking the difference of equations (14) and (11) and dividing by the difference between equations (15) and (11) gives…”

“…Moisture uptake is known to affect other textile properties such as swelling, heat transport, electrical conductivity, and the perceived comfort of clothing. 9–15…”

“…Moisture uptake is known to affect other textile properties such as swelling, heat transport, electrical conductivity, and the perceived comfort of clothing. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Studies of soil provide precedent for a dependence of infrared emissivity on moisture content as several reports show that the emissivity of sand and soil increases with moisture content. [16][17][18][19] No such study has been reported to date for fabrics, however.…”

Spatial and temporal migration of sweat: from skin to clothing

“…Extensive research has been conducted to discover strategies able to maximise heat and mass transfer through the clothing barrier, yet maintaining its protective function (Lomax 2007 ; Fukazawa and Havenith 2009 ; Sarkar et al 2009 ; Havenith et al 2011 ; Ke et al 2013 ; Sun et al 2015 ; Lin et al 2015 ; Wang et al 2017 ). To characterise fabric moisture absorption and transport properties, several apparatus and test methods have been developed (Harnett and Mehta 1984 ; Hong et al 1988 ; Ghali et al 1994 ; McCullough et al 2003 ; Huang and Qian 2007 ; Huang and Xiaoming 2008 ); however, the relevance of these tests has not been supported by real-life data from humans during exercise.…”