Dai Xiao-Qun, Imamura Ritsuko, Liu Guo-Lian, Zhou Fu-Ping
College of Material Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou, People's Republic of China.
Eur J Appl Physiol. 2008 Sep;104(2):337-40. doi: 10.1007/s00421-007-0628-z. Epub 2007 Dec 11.
Water transport through garments has influence on the microclimate between the garments and the body beneath; thus the thermal comfort feeling for the wearer. Soybean protein fiber (SPF), a new type environmental fiber, which has been reported to be superior in water transfer, is often blended with cotton to improve the water transport property. In this paper, T-shirts made of this SPF/cotton blended fabric were focused in comparison with T-shirts made of cotton fabric. Wicking and immersion tests were carried out on the two types of fabrics to investigate the water transport and absorption properties, respectively; wear trials of T-shirts made of the fabrics were also conducted. Comparing with the cotton fabric which had better water absorptive property, it was found that the blended fabric with superior wicking ability could not only delay the increase of the vapor pressure under the T-shirt at the beginning of the exercise, but also help to keep it lower through the exercise significantly, and also kept the skin temperature under the T-shirt lower. It was made clear that it is the water transfer property rather than the water absorption property helps to take away sweat quickly and prevents the increase of the humidity and temperature at skin surface, thus maintaining a comfort microclimate under garments.
水分透过衣物会影响衣物与身体之间的微气候，进而影响穿着者的热舒适感。大豆蛋白纤维（SPF）是一种新型环保纤维，据报道其在水分传递方面表现优异，常与棉混纺以改善水分传输性能。本文重点比较了用这种SPF/棉混纺织物制成的T恤与纯棉织物制成的T恤。对这两种织物分别进行了芯吸和浸渍试验，以研究其水分传输和吸收性能；还对用这些织物制成的T恤进行了穿着试验。与具有较好吸水性能的纯棉织物相比，发现具有优异芯吸能力的混纺织物不仅能在运动开始时延缓T恤下方蒸汽压的升高，而且能在运动过程中显著帮助保持较低的蒸汽压，还能使T恤下方的皮肤温度保持较低。结果表明，有助于快速排汗并防止皮肤表面湿度和温度升高，从而在衣物下维持舒适微气候的是水分传输性能而非吸水性能。
