Definition:
v Comfort
is a complex and nebulous subject that is very difficult to define.
v Comfort
is involves thermal and non thermal properties, it is related to wear
situations, such as working, critical conditions.
v Freedom
from pain and discomfort as a neutral state,
Why clothing comfort is necessary?
Because
clothing is directly in contact with human body, it interacts with the body
continuously and dynamically during wear. This stimulates mechanical, thermal
and visual sensations.
Types of Comfort:
Ø Thermo
physiological comfort: It involves transport of
heat and moisture through a fabric.
Ø Sensorial
Comfort: It involves neural sensations when
textile comes into contact with skin.
Ø Body
movement Comfort: Ability of a textile to
allow freedom of movement reduces burden and body shaping as required.
Ø Aesthetic
Comfort: It involves subjective perception of
clothing to the eye, hand, ear and nose which contributes a overall well-being
of the wearer.
Human clothing system:
v Clothing
is the integral part of human life and has number of functions such as
· Adornment -
Latest fashion
· Status - Well -fitting
· Modesty - Mental comfort
· Protection - To
protection from external environmental
Clothing and Thermal comfort:
v Fundamental
function of clothing is to keep the human body in an appropriate thermal
environment in which it can maintain its thermal balance and thermal comfort.
v The human body tries to maintain
a constant core temperature of about 370C
v Therefore
clothing is needed to protect the body against climatic changes.
v Also
the clothing system should keep body temperature within median range even if
the external environment and physical activities change in a much border range.
Thermal Comfort:
v The
thermal comfort of man depends on clothing, climate and physical activity.
v “Effective
temperature” as on index of warmth perception when human body is exposed to
various temperature, humidity and air movements.
v Discomfort
perception was related to lowering average skin temperature towards cold
environments and increased sweating towards hot environments.
v Thermal
discomfort was found to be an excellent stimulus for behavioural activity by
man.
Moisture vapour permeability
Perspiration
is an important mechanism which the body uses to lose heat when its temperature
starts to rise. Heat is taken from the body in order to supply the latent heat
needed to evaporate the moisture from the skin.
There are two forms of perspiration:
1. Insensible - in this form the perspiration
is transported as a vapour and it passes through the air gaps between yarns in
a fabric.
2. Liquid - this form occurs at higher
sweating rates and it wets the clothing which is in contact with the skin.
Waterproof breathable fabrics
The
existence of the problem of the lack of water vapour permeability in waterproof
fabrics has led to the development of waterproof breathable fabrics. One
approach to producing such a fabric is to use membranes attached to the fabric
or coatings on the fabric which are waterproof but which will allow moisture
vapour to pass through.
A water droplet has a size of around 100μm whereas
a water vapour molecule has a size of around 0.0004μm. If, therefore, a
membrane or fabric can be produced with pore sizes between these two limits it
will then have the desired properties.
Sensorial comfort
Sensorial
comfort is concerned with how a fabric or garment feels when it is worn next to
the skin. It has been found that when subjects wore various fabrics next to the
skin they could not detect differences in fabric structure, drape or fabric
finish but could detect differences in fabric hairiness.
Some of the separate factors contributing to
sensorial comfort which have been identified are:
1.
Tickle caused by fabric hairiness.
2.
Prickle caused by coarse and therefore stiff fibers protruding from fabric surface.