Evaluation of the Wear Comfort of Women's Fitted Sports T-shirts Made from Cool-Touch Fabrics

This research investigated the effects of cool touch fabrics on thermo-regulating physical properties and subjective evaluation using a 3D fitted women's T-shirts in wear test. Qmax, clothing microclimate, microclimate wettedness, thermogram and subjective vote were observed during rest-right after an exercise-rest protocol. As a result, there was no single determining physical variable to explain the reasons of cool sensations of T-shirts made of cool touch fabric across the entire protocol. Qmax could partly predict a wear sensation at the initial stage when only insensible perspiration was presented. Simultaneous observation of temperature/humidity gradient understand from the inside to the outside of the clothing layer or microclimate wettedness calculated using vapor pressure were helpful to figure out the performance of cool touch fabric, especially at the later stage of the protocol when sweating was excessive. It was especially difficult to connect thermo-regulating physical variables to the subjective evaluation during transient conditions such as 'right after exercise' stage. It is necessary to measure the amount of heat and moisture transferred from the skin to the outside of clothing along with the physical properties measured in this study to understand the detailed mechanisms of why a cool sensation is evoked from tight fitting T-shirts made of newly developed cool touch fabrics.

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