| In recent years, the knitted fabrics have been widely used in a variety of tight-fitting underwear, foundation garments and sportswear because of their good flexibility and extensibility. Consumers in pursuit of fashion are paying more attention to their physical and mental health and comfort after wearing. The pressure comfort of foundation garments has gradually become one of the most important indicators for evaluation of wearing comfort. Therefore, it's very important to investigate the methods for evaluating pressure comfort as well as establishing comfort evaluation system for foundation garments. It will also facilitate the development of functional underwear.In this paper a pressure measurement system for foundation garments based on virtual instrument LabVIEW was developed in order to measure the pressure of foundation garments. The system can mainly be divided into two parts including hardware and software. The hardware consisted of pressure sensor, signal conditioning modules, terminal equipment, data acquisition and computer. The software part was graphic programming based on LabVIEW and configuration of data acquisition parameters.In the hardware system signal conditioning modules were designed based on the theory of amplifier and pressure sensor Flexiforce A201 developed by Texscan USA was chosen, of which the performance was proved to be fine and stable according to the static calibration data. Secondly, the software was developed under the Windows XP environment with virtual instrument of LabVIEW from National Instrument USA. The user interface design is characterized by putting the similar on the same panel, which is convenient for user's operation. As for the program design, it is accurate and efficient for the transmission of parameters between the functional modules. Meanwhile, the system was also designed with error-handling capabilities to prevent defects of data loss caused by system instability during the pressure test, which is superior to the ordinary system. In addition, the system can acquire signals from four channels simultaneously and display the curve at the same time. Generally, the system has better met the needs of pressure measurement for foundation garments objectively.After the establishment and evaluation of pressure measurement system, the combination of objective measurement with subjective assessment was used to investigate the pressure comfort of foundation garments. The experiment of objective pressure test was divided into three groups. First, on the basis of previous studies five pressure zones containing twenty representive testing points were determined. Then, by use of controlling variable method, influences on pressure caused by fabrics, relaxed and structures were discussed as well as the pressure distribution. For the subjective assessment, psychophysical methods were used. Through analysis of correlation matrix, correlativity among various perceptions was found and the correlation coefficient between feeling of tight and constricting was the highest that's 0.9065. In addition, the subjective assessments for all testing points were made then the wearing comfort was evaluated comprehensively, which layed the foundation for the comprehensive evaluation for the foundation garments. Finally, by combing the objective test and subjective assessment results, the relationships between the pressure and wearing comfort was analyzed to get the pressure range, in which no uncomfort was felt for the wearers. Thus, a more scientific and practical evaluation system of pressure comfort for the foundation garment can be established, which will provide a reference to optimal design of foundation garments.
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