Simultaneous Contact Sensing and Characterizing of Mechanical and Dynamic Heat Transfer Properties of Porous Polymeric Materials

Abstract

Porous polymeric materials, such as textile fabrics, are elastic and widely used in our daily life for garment and household products. The mechanical and dynamic heat transfer properties of porous polymeric materials, which describe the sensations during the contact process between porous polymeric materials and parts of the human body, such as the hand, primarily influence comfort sensations and aesthetic qualities of clothing. A multi-sensory measurement system and a new method were proposed to simultaneously sense the contact and characterize the mechanical and dynamic heat transfer properties of porous polymeric materials, such as textile fabrics in one instrument, with consideration of the interactions between different aspects of contact feels. The multi-sensory measurement system was developed for simulating the dynamic contact and psychological judgment processes during human hand contact with porous polymeric materials, and measuring the surface smoothness, compression resilience, bending and twisting, and dynamic heat transfer signals simultaneously. The contact sensing principle and the evaluation methods were presented. Twelve typical sample materials with different structural parameters were measured. The results of the experiments and the interpretation of the test results were described. An analysis of the variance and a capacity study were investigated to determine the significance of differences among the test materials and to assess the gage repeatability and reproducibility. A correlation analysis was conducted by comparing the test results of this measurement system with the results of Kawabata Evaluation System (KES) in separate instruments. This multi-sensory measurement system provides a new method for simultaneous contact sensing and characterizing of mechanical and dynamic heat transfer properties of porous polymeric materials.

Mechanical Measurement System and Precision Analysis for Tactile Property Evaluation of Porous Polymeric Materials

“…A series of research works and methods developed based on the KES system have been reported, with some focusing on combining objective and subjective evaluations to obtain a regression model to predict fabric handle [ 10 ], some focusing on the measurement of certain mechanical properties such as bending rigidity and the relationship analysis between KES and FAST system [ 11 ], and some paying attention to automatic test process control [ 12 ]. Unlike the KES and FAST systems, which use several instruments, newly developed systems have been able to measure and evaluate the handle properties in one instrument [ 13 , 14 , 15 ], with the typical representative being the PhabrOmeter system developed by Pan [ 14 ]. The PhabrOmeter system applied the pattern recognition technique to evaluate handle properties and assess some visual attributes such as drape and wrinkle recovery, but the measured parameters and the test results did not have physical meanings.…”