Porosity of Knitted Fabrics in the Aspect of Air Permeability - Discussion of Selected Assumptions

Abstract

The main focus of this paper is to look into the relationship between the structure and air permeability of single jersey knitted fabric – especially verifying some basic assumptions. First, if it is possible to neglect the permeability of yarns themselves when we evaluate that of knits, and second, if yarn hairiness plays a significant role when we evaluate the relationship between air permeability and the porosity of knits. Theoretical calculations and experiments which were performed using an analysis of microscopic images of the structure of textile materials are used for the determination of inter-yarn and intra-yarn porosity. The paper aims to show t hat the characteristic dimension of inter-yarn pores is significantly higher than that of intra-yarn pores, and also that the values of inter-yarn porosity measured using image analysis methods with hairiness and after the removal of hairiness are statistically significantly different. The correlation coefficients for the porosity values measured and calculated are very high.