• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.947-952
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to analyze skin wettedness($w$) used as the rate index of thermal comfort, and to evaluate the wear comfort of outdoorwear. Skin wettedness is widely used to express the degree of thermal comfort. If skin wettedness exceeds a certain threshold, the body feels damp and discomfort. An experiment which consisted of rest(30 min), exercise(30 min) and recovery(20 min) periods was administered in a climate chamber with 10 healthy male participants. Two kinds of outdoorwears made of 100% cotton fabrics (Control) and specially engineered fabrics having feature of quick sweat absorbency and high speed drying fabric (Functional) were evaluated in the experiment. The condition of climate chamber was controlled according to the thermal insulation of 4 kinds of experimental ensembles(E1~E4). Total sweat loss, sweat loss absorbed into clothing and skin temperature were measured. Skin wettedness was calculated from the ratio of evaporative rate to the maximal evaporative capacity. Skin wettedness of 'Functional' was lower than 'Control' in the 3 kinds of ensembles(E1, E2, E4) because the materials of 'Functional' were composed of quick sweat absorbency and high speed drying fabrics, water vapour permeability and waterproof fabrics.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.929-938
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• 2017

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.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.151-161
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• 1993

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of hydrophilic finish for polyester (PET) fabric and hydrophobic finish for cotton fabric on the water transport and comfort properties. Polyester fabric was treated with 10% sodium hydroxide solution to impart hydrophilicity. Cotton fabric was sprayed with Scotch-gard$^{(R)}$ water and oil repellent finish to impart hydrophobicity. Porosity, air permeability, contact angle, wickability and water vapor transport rate (WVTR) were measured to determine the water transport properties of fabrics. To compare the comfort properties of treated and untreated fabrics, wear test was performed by putting fabric patches on the upper back: stratum corneum water content (SCWC), subjective wettedness and comfort rating were determined. The results were as follows: (1) The contact angle of water on treated polyester fabric was decreased and that of treated cotton fabric was increased. Also, the wickability of treated polyester fabric was increased and the wickability of cotton fabric was decreased. (2) Although each finish did not change porosity, the water vapor transport rate of treated polyester fabric was increased and that of treated cotton fabric was decreased slightly. (3) The results of stratum corneum water content measurements showed good agreement with the results of the contact angle and the wickability, i.e., the better the liquid water transport properties are, the less the stratum corneum water contents were resulted. (4) The realtionship of subjective wettedness or comfort and stratum corneum water content was independent. Therefore, it was concluded that human perception on the subjective wettedness or the comfort is affected by the skin contact of wet fabric rather than by the stratum corneum water content.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.149-158
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• 2018

Background: Work comfort studies have been extensively conducted, especially in the underground and meteorological fields resulting in an avalanche of recommendations for their evaluation. Nevertheless, no known or universally accepted model for comprehensively assessing the thermal work condition of the underground mine environment is currently available. Current literature presents several methods and techniques, but none of these can expansively assess the underground mine environment since most methods consider only one or a few defined factors and neglect others. Some are specifically formulated for the built and meteorological climates, thus making them unsuitable to accurately assess the climatic conditions in underground development and production workings. Methods: This paper presents a series of sensitivity analyses to assess the impact of environmental parameters and metabolic rate on the thermal comfort for underground mining applications. An approach was developed in the form of a "comfort model" which applied comfort parameters to extensively assess the climatic conditions in the deep, hot, and humid underground mines. Results: Simulation analysis predicted comfort limits in the form of required sweat rate and maximum skin wettedness. Tolerable worker exposure times to minimize thermal strain due to dehydration are predicted. Conclusion: The analysis determined the optimal air velocity for thermal comfort to be 1.5 m/s. The results also identified humidity to contribute more to deviations from thermal comfort than other comfort parameters. It is expected that this new approach will significantly help in managing heat stress issues in underground mines and thus improve productivity, safety, and health.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.342-353
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to evaluate far-infrared clothing (FIR condition) with non-far-infrared clothing (Control condition) to assess the effects of FIR on thermo-physiological responses. Eight young healthy males (23.0±2.3 yr, 176.5±3.7 cm, and 69.0±4.3 kg) participated in this experimental trial, which consisted of a 20 min rest followed by a 40 min walk (4.0 km·hr^-1) and a 20 min recovery at 20℃ with 50%RH. The results showed that finger skin blood flow and mean skin temperature were significantly higher for the FIR condition than the control during exercise and recovery (p<.001). Clothing microclimate temperature of the FIR condition was 0.5℃ higher on the back (p=.001) and 0.4℃ higher on the thigh (p=.015) during recovery. Clothing microclimate relative humidity of the FIR condition was 13% higher on the chest (p=.006) and 19% higher on the back (p<.001) during exercise than control. Subjects felt warmer and more comfortable in the FIR condition than in the control (p<.05). Perceived skin wettedness (%BSA) was less in the FIR condition than in the control (p=.001). These results indicate that ceramic-embedded clothing had significant effects on thermoregulatory responses for light activity in an indoor environment.