A novel method and parameters for evaluating thermal sensation of textile

Abstract

In this study, a novel method simulating the heat transmission between the human skin, textile and environment was developed to evaluate the initial thermal sensation when the human skin touched textile products. Two sets of predictive parameters were proposed based on the heat flux curves to separately represent the initial cool and warm thermal responses perceived by skin at the initial contacting time. A subjective test was also carried out in a climate chamber where the temperature was fixed at 20 ± 2 °C and the relative humidity was maintained at 65 ± 4%. In addition, series of numerical studies was utilized to study the effects of pretreated environment on these parameters. The validity of the proposed method and parameters was then confirmed by a comparison of the objective measurement and subjective evaluation. The results suggested that the transient maximum heat flux Qmax, the maximum heat flux rising rate K and the heat energy W were strongly related to the thermal sensation of subjects. Besides, the drastic cool feeling time t was supposed to be a value reflecting the rate and duration of such feeling. Then, the K was found to be a parameter not only related to the thermal properties, but also closely associated with the surface morphology of the samples. The relative humidity was a dominant factor affecting the thermal sensation, especially for textile products with a high moisture regain. The cool feeling was observed to increase with the higher relative humidity, as the heat capacity and thermal conductivity increased when more moisture was absorbed.