Fabric liquid moisture transport properties in multidimensions, called moisture management properties, significantly influence human perceptions of moisture sensations. A new method and instrument called the moisture management tester (MMT) is developed to evaluate textile moisture management properties. This new method can be used to quantitatively measure liquid moisture transfer in one step in a fabric in multidirections, where liquid moisture spreads on both surfaces of the fabric and transfers from one surface to the opposite. Ten indexes are introduced to characterize the liquid moisture management properties of fabrics. Eight sets of sportswear are tested with the MMT and the results show that liquid moisture management properties are significantly different for these fabrics. The objective measurements are compared with subjective perceptions of moisture sensations during exercise. A fabric’s one-way-transport capacity and its overall moisture management capacity are significantly correlated with perceptions of clammy and damp sensations with increased exercise time, indicating that subjective perceptions of moisture sensations in sweating such as clammy and damp can be predicted by the measurements of the MMT.

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To illustrate the shape memory properties of shape memory polyurethane (SMPU) fiber and the difference of thermal/mechanical properties between SMPU fiber and other various man-made fibers, series of shape memory polyurethane having various hard segment content were synthesized with the pre-polymerization method and spun with the wet spinning process. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and mechanical testing were conducted to study the particular thermal/mechanical properties of shape memory polyurethane fiber in comparison with other man-made fibers such as nylon6, polyester, Lycra and XLA. In addition, in the preparation of shape memory polyurethane fiber, the effect of thermal setting temperature was systematically investigated by mechanical properties testing, DMA and cyclic tensile testing, suggesting that the thermal setting temperature has a huge influence on the mechanical properties and shape memory property due to the elimination of internal stress. Thermal setting with a higher temperature will give rise to a lower tensile modulus and tenacity and a higher elongation ratio at break. Through employing the optimal thermal setting treatment, the complete heating responsive recovery in SMPU fiber can be achieved because of the counteracting effect of the irreversible strain and thermal shrinkage.

This paper presents a mechanical model for numerical simulations of 3D dynamic garment pressure during wear using a finite element method. Based on analyzing the contact characteristics between the human body and the garment, a mechanical model is developed based on the theory of dynamic contact mechanics. The garment is regarded as an elastic shell of geometric nonlinearity and the human body is assumed to be rigid. The contact between body and garment is modeled as a dynamic sliding interface. A series of examples is presented to illustrate the simulation results of the computational model using commercial finite element software: a female human model wearing a set of perfectly fitting sportswear. The garments have the same style but are made from different materials: a cotton denim fabric and a knitted nylon fabric. Compared with values of measured garment pressure reported in the literature, the predicted pressure is close to the magnitude of experimental measurements, indicating that the model is able to simulate garment pressure during wear with reasonable accuracy. The computational model can simulate and predict the dynamic mechanical behavior of garments during wear, such as garment deformation, pressure, and internal stresses, without actually producing the garment.

An objective method for the assessment of levelness of dyed materials has been established. The relative unlevelness index developed takes account of the coefficients of variation of reflectance measured over the visible spectrum, with appropriate consideration of human vision sensitivity. It was found that the index demonstrated good correlation with the visual levelness assessment.