| With the increase in sport time as well as activity load, it becomes more and more important to study the comfortable properties of sportswear. Nowadays, the moisture absorbent & quick-dry fiber is widely used in sportswear field because of its special properties. Although some researchers studied on the moisture transfer in these fibers and fabrics, few reports were found to assess thermal and moisture transfer properties of the moisture absorbent & quick-dry apparels. In this paper, the main study is related to a reasonable evaluation system for this functional apparel. Such evaluation system can be used to evaluate the thermal and moisture comfortable properties of the moisture absorbent & quick-dry apparels under heavy-load sport simply, completely, objectively and quickly. This result will provide professional and practical guidance for the development of the moisture absorbent & quick-dry fibre, fabric and apparel design, as well as professional suggestion for customers to choose correct sports wear products.In this paper, eight kinds of knitting fabrics were selected, including six moisture absorbent & quick-dry fabrics, one pure cotton fabric and one pure polyester fabric. The thermal and moisture comfort properties of these fabrics were characterized using the moisture management tester (MMT) and water-cup method. The thermal and moisture comfortable properties of these apparels were assessed based on an objective sweating manikin as well as a subjective evaluation. The results of the moisture absorbent & quick-dry fabrics and apparels were shown as follows.(1) The water vapor permeability is not obvious influenced by fiber component, but it is obvious influenced by fabric structure and thickness.(2) The moisture absorbent & quick-dry fabrics have good liquid moisture transfer properties. The liquid moisture transfer properties of the moisture absorbent & quick-dry fabrics are under obvious influenced by fabric surface properties, moisture absorbent & quick-dry fiber content, fiber component, fabric structure and thickness.(3) These apparels which contain the moisture absorbent & quick-dry fiber have large water vapor permeability, small moisture resistance and moderate thermal resistance. More moisture absorbent & quick-dry fiber, better thermal and moisture transfer properties. The thermal and moisture transfer properties of the moisture absorbent & quick-dry apparels are under obvious influenced by fabric thickness and fabric structure.(4) The moisture absorbent & quick-dry apparels have good moisture absorbent & quick-dry properties. The thermal and moisture comfort properties of the apparel are under obvious influenced by fabric surface properties, moisture absorbent & quick-dry fiber content, fiber component, fabric structure and thickness.The following results can be obtained by means of the correlation analysis of different evaluation methods.(1) The relationships between static water vapor permeability and the subjective perception of damp, thermal, stuffy and clingy aren't significant. The subjective perception of the moisture absorbent & quick-dry apparel can not be forecasted by the static water vapor permeability index.(2) The relationships between MMT indexes ( WT_t, WT_b , AR_t and AR_b ) and the subjective perception of stuffy aresignificant. Longer the top and bottom wetting time, more quickly the top and bottom absorption rate, more obvious the subjective perception of stuffy. So the subjective stuffy perception of the moisture absorbent & quick-dry apparel can be forecasted by the MMT indexes. (3) The relationships between MMT indexes and the subjective perception of damp, thermal and clingy aren't significant. The subjective perception of damp, thermal and clingy can not be forecasted by MMT indexes.(4) The relationships between the sweating manikin indexes and the subjective perception of damp, thermal, stuffy and clingy aren't significant. The thermal and moisture comfort properties of the moisture absorbent & quick-dry apparels can not be forecasted by the sweating manikin indexes.(5) The subjective perception (damp, thermal, and clingy) of the moisture absorbent& quick-dry apparels can't be forecasted by the static water vapor permeability, sweating manikin indexes and MMT indexes which were selected in this paper.(6) The subjective stuffy perception of the moisture absorbent& quick-dry apparels can be forecasted by MMT indexes(WT_t, WT_b, AR_t and AR_b ) which was selected in this paper.Finally, based on the above research results, other objective indexes are suggested to be selected to forecast the subjective perception (damp, thermal and stuffy) of moisture absorbent & quick-dry apparels in the future study.
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