Abstract
Abstract In this study, an algebraic model and its experimental verification was carried out to investigate the effect of moisture content on the heat loss that takes place due to conduction of sock fabrics. The results show that increasing moisture content in the studied socks caused a significant increase in their conductive heat loss. Plain knitted socks with different fiber composition were wetted to a saturated level, and then their moisture content was reduced stepwise. When achieving the required moisture content, the socks samples were characterized by the Alambeta testing instrument for heat transfer. Three different existing modified mathematical models for the thermal conductivity of wet fabrics were used for predicting thermal resistance of socks under wet conditions. The results from both ways are in very good agreement for all the socks at a 95% confidence level. In the above-mentioned models, the prediction of thermal resistance presents newly a combined effect of the real filling coefficient and thermal conductivity of the so-called “wet” polymers instead of dry polymers. With these modifications, the used models predicted the thermal resistance at different moisture levels. Predicted thermal resistance is converted into heat transfer (due to conduction) with a significantly high coefficient of correlation.
Highlights
Heat transfer by conduction mostly depends on fiber’s thermal conductivity, volume, orientation to the heat flow direction, and fabric construction [1, 2]
Thermal conductivity of the fabrics can be evaluated in different ways: experimental method, analytical solution method, and numerical method [3]
Most of the studies on thermal conductivity/thermal resistance in the wet state to date are experimental and reported that there was an increase in thermal conduction consequent to increasing the moisture content [4,5,6,7,8]
Summary
Heat transfer by conduction mostly depends on fiber’s thermal conductivity, volume, orientation to the heat flow direction, and fabric construction [1, 2]. Thermal conductivity of the fabrics can be evaluated in different ways: experimental method, analytical solution method, and numerical method [3]. Socks are made of fabrics where the absorbed moisture can strongly influence their thermal comfort properties, since a human foot could generate up to 30–50 g of sweat per hour in a hot environment [10, 11]. The most recent study reports the range (10.3 ± 3.6 g · h–1) with shoes compared to an uncovered foot (12.6 ± 3.7 g · h–1) [13] Owing to these high sweat rates, the heat loss may substantially increase. Some researchers have predicted the thermal conductivity of wet fabrics with mathematical approaches. Schuhmeister [21] developed a relationship to calculate the thermal conductivity of the mixture of air and fiber with the following assumptions: a)
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