A Study on the Effect of Fiber Type on the Water Vapor Transport Properties

섬유의 종류와 조합에 따른 직물의 수분전달 특성에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of hydrophilicity of the fiber on the water vapor transport properties of the fabric by using double layered fabrics of natural and synthetic fibers such as cotton, wool, nylon, dacron, orlon and polypropylene. Wickability and absorption rate were measured to determine the absorbancy of the fabrics. Dynamic and steady state water vapor transport properties were measured by cobaltous chloride method and evaporation method, respectively. Absorption was in the order of orlon> cotton > wool > nylon > polypropylene > dacron. Dynamic surface wetness of synthetic fabrics were faster than that of natural fabrics. For the double layered fabrics, higher water vapor transport was resulted when the natural fabric was exposed to lower vapor pressure and synthetic fabric was exposed to higher vapor pressure than when the fabrics were layered the other way around. Opposite result was obtained for orlon, which suggested that when the fabric of high absorbancy is exposed to the environment and lower absorbancy is to the skin, higher water vapor transpont could be resulted.