Thermal regulating functional performance of PCM garments

Abstract

By analysing the physical mechanisms of heat and moisture transfer through textiles with PCM and carrying out the test of thermal regulating functional performance of PCM garment in climate chamber, the thermal regulating functional performance of PCM garments have been analysed and discussed in this paper. Both numerical solution and experimental results show that during the phase change process the rate of temperature rise of garment with higher PCM add‐on level was lower than that with less PCM. From theoretical analysis and experiment curve, the parameter of k was proposed and discussed, which is used to represent the rate of temperature change and the thermal regulating functional performance of PCM garments. It has been demonstrated that the higher the PCM add‐on level contained in the garment, the lower is the value of k, and slower the temperature raised in the garment, the higher is the effect of thermal regulating.