Wickability behaviour of single-knit structures

Abstract

Wicking is the spontaneous flow of a liquid in a porous substrate, driven by capillary force. This flow in aporous medium, caused by capillary action, is governed by the properties of the liquid such as surface tension, viscosity and density as well as the surface-wetting forces and geometric configuration of the pore structure such as yarn construction, number of fibres in the cross section, the randomness of the internal structure, twist and the fabric structure. In this study of wickability, the most widely used structures such as single jersey, single pique, double pique and honeycomb with two structural-cell stitch lengths have been considered. Wickability increases with structural-cell stitch length. Among the different structures of fabrics, single jersey with higher structural-cell stitch length shows better performance of wickability and absorption of water when drop is placed on the fabric. The wickability of knitted fabrics was also evaluated in different directions such as wale, course, and bias direction. Among these, wale-wise specimen shows better wicking behaviour. The effect of different liquids like distilled water, artificial sweat solution, tap water, hot water and so on was also tested. The distilled water shows good wicking behaviour as compared with other liquids.