FABRIC SCIENCE

SUBMITTED BY:
INDRANIL SAHA (7)
SURBHI GOYAL (18)
B.FTech
Semester IV
 TOPIC:

Aerodynamic and Comfort

Characteristics of A Double Layer
Knitted Fabric Assembly for High Speed
Winter Sports
 Abstract

 Study on the double layer concept of knitted fabrics suitable for

performance sportswear, where each layer is separate from the other.
 Aerodynamic properties of this assembly determined
 Base layer is made of 100% wool and an external layer made of 100%
filament polyester
 The aerodynamic resistance was acquired at different speeds relevant to
high speed winter sports.
 Evaluation of comfort properties of each layer as well as a double layer
was performed and the liquid moisture management capacity of the
assembly was classified.
 Results from the aerodynamic tests demonstrated that the base layer
influences the aerodynamic characteristics of the entire assembly.
 Correlations between the geometrical parameters of double layer
assembly and comfort and aerodynamic properties were established.
 Introduction

 For most speed sports- requirement is to overcome the resistance to

drag.

 The criterion for success in many sports is the time required to propel
the athlete's body for a given distance and success depends on the
principle–the champion is the athlete best able to reduce the
resistance to movement or drag that must be overcome in competition.

 Advances in aerodynamic properties of fabrics used in sports garments

contribute significantly to the improved performance of an athlete.
FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE REDUCTION OF THE AERODYNAMIC
RESISTANCE (DRAG) AND THE ASSOCIATED ENERGY LOSS DURING THE
SPORT EVENTS:

 Posture and weight of the athlete’s body

 The weight and aerodynamic properties of the equipment used
 The surface characteristics of the fabrics used in sports garments
 Fit, style and design of the sports garments worn

 Fabric surface roughness (surface unevenness) also affects the comfort

of the garment as well as the amount of resultant aerodynamic drag
employed on athlete.
 Some effects are less apparent such as air spaces between layers of
fabric, known to affect air and thermal permeability, and transfer of
liquid moisture, thereby affecting overall comfort of the garments
worn.
 In terms of comfort, fabrics with relatively uneven surface for next to
skin (inner layer) means less direct contact points with the skin and are
more comfortable than smooth surfaced fabrics.

 In terms of aerodynamics, using fabrics with high surface roughness in

outer (external layer) reduces aerodynamic drag thereby increasing the
speed of athletes.
Aerodynamic Drag- The retarding force that acts on moving aerodynamic body
in the direction of the free stream flow.

  is frontal area of the object, is the drag coefficient, ρ is the air density and
V is the air velocity.

 The drag coefficient is a dimensionless parameter that describes how much

drag is caused by a flow on an object.

 A larger value implies that the object has more drag and less speed.
 Garment surface roughness depends on factors such as fibre choice and
fabric construction; porosity and thickness of fabric assembly.

 All of these factors depend on fabric’s cover factor (CF).

 Cover Factor expresses the tightness of a fabric and is directly related to

the physical properties of fabric like appearance, weight per unit area,
thickness, porosity etc.
Comfort- Comfort is influenced by various factors – thermo physiological,
sensorial and ergonomic.

 Thermo physiological Comfort- Relates to heat and moisture interaction

between human body and the clothing worn.

 Sensorial Comfort- A function of feel of the garment against the skin.

 Ergonomic Comfort- Relates to the fit of the garment and may be

influenced by factors such as the tendency to stick to the skin.
Moisture Management
 Fabrics used for sports garments should provide control of the movement
of body moisture in such a way that it is transported away from the skin to
the external surface of the fabric, from where it can evaporate quickly.

 Garments produced from fabrics with high moisture management

performance keep the skin dry and provide the maximum comfort. For
active sportswear, the moisture management properties of the
constituent fabrics are critical in keeping the skin dry.

 The factors affecting the “moisture management” properties of the fabrics

and fabric assemblies are:

 Fibre choice,
 Yarn and fabric construction,
 Fabric/fabric assembly porosity
 Applied fabrics finishes/treatments.
Purpose of The Present Work

 To study and assess the aerodynamic properties, the surface roughness

(texture) and the corresponding size of openings, created by inter
looping of yarn within the knitted structure of the double layer fabric
assembly as well the moisture management capability of these
assemblies.

 To establish the relationship between the cover factor (CF) of the

double layered knitted fabric assemblies and their aerodynamic and
moisture management properties.
 Experiment

 Fibres used to produce next to skin fabrics need to be relatively soft and
smooth.

 The fabric assembly with an external layer being on top of the base
layer, needs to be able to transport the moisture away from the skin
without restricting the comfort of the wearer and the body movement.

 At the same time this fabric assembly and especially external layer,
should provide optimum level of aerodynamic drag in order to be
suitable for use in high-speed sports garments.
 Fabric samples intended for base layer were produced using 20 Tex
100% extra fine Merino wool (18.5μ fibre diameter) and fabrics
intended for external layer were produced using 100% Polyester
filament yarn.

 The experimental measurement of aerodynamic properties of all fabric

assemblies was conducted at NTNU (Norwegian University of Science
and Technology) wind tunnel in Trondheim.

 Structure analysis of the fabrics was performed with an Epson

Perfection 4990 desktop scanner.

 Liquid moisture management performance of all fabric assemblies was

tested at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia by using SDL Moisture
Management Tester (MMT).
Structure of The Instruments Used And Principle of
The Test Method
 NTNU wind tunnel
o Test section of the wind tunnel - 12.5 meters long, 1.8 m high, and 2.7
m wide.
o Equipped with a 220 kW fan
o Maximum speed reachable = 30 m/s.

 A force balance has been used to measure the forces and a pitot probe
was used to measure the wind speed in the test section.

 The balance (Carl Schenck AG) used is a six component balance capable
to measure the three forces and the three momentums around the three
axes.

 Variations of forces and moments are measured using strain gauges

glued to the balance body.
 A vertical 16cm diameter cylinder made of rigid plastic material was
used, using the approximation that arms and legs are cylindrically
shaped.

 The cylinder is connected to the force balance with a rigid metal support
placed in the back of the cylinder in order to avoid any interference with
the flow.

 The surface structure analysis was done processing images acquired with
a scanner. The scanner used was a Epson Perfection 4990 desktop
scanner. Digital images were acquired with a resolution of 2400 dpi,
giving a pixel size of approximately 10.6μm. Image processing and
analysis were performed with the Image J program and utilizing the
Shape descriptor plugin.
 A Moisture management tester (MMT) was used for the comfort
testing. The MMT instrument was used to test the liquid water transfer
and distribution of knitted fabric sample assemblies.

 The principle utilized by the MMT is based on the fact that when the
moisture travels through a fabric, the contact electrical resistance of
the fabric will change.

 The fabric is in contact with the sensor rings, which determine the
liquid content and the liquid moisture transfer behaviour between the
fabric surfaces, where the top surface on the instrument is normally
the base layer of the assembly and bottom surface is the external layer.
 On the basis of the measured voltage charges, the variation of water
content with time on the fabric top and bottom can be quantitatively
measured.

 Nine knitted fabric assemblies variations were manufactured and

analyzed, using 3 fabric samples with varying CF, produced from natural
100% wool spun yarn, as a base layer and 3 fabric samples with the same
variations in CF, produced from 100% polyester filament yarn, as a
external layer.

 All knitted fabric samples were produced on a Lawson Hemphill FAK – S,

Fabric Analysis Knitter in 24 gauge, 8.9 cm diameter, with total number of
needles being 260 knitting.

 Single jersey knitted fabric construction was selected in all the knitted
fabric samples due to its simplicity and inherent stretch/ recovery
properties.
Details Of The Fabric Sample Assemblies And
Matrix Of The Tests Conducted
 Methods

Surface analysis of double layer knitted fabric assemblies by

using optical image technique:

Methods
 The images were threshold automatically with particles less than 50
pixels been removed.
 The following shape descriptor was considered: area (fig. 1a) and, feret
diameter (fig. 1b).
 The area is given by the total number of black pixels within each
opening.
 The feret diameter corresponds to the longest axis within a given object.

Results show that the base layer influences the overall structure of the
fabric assembly. From the scattered plot in figure 1a, the higher CFt is, the
smaller the openings in the fabrics are. This behavior is shown for both the
external layers tested (CFb=1.4 and CFb=1.0). The same trend can be seen in
figure 1 for the feret diameter: the higher CFt is, the smaller the feret
diameter is.
 Aerodynamic Performance of double layer
knitted fabric assembly

 Testing of aerodynamic properties of all fabric assemblies was

carried out on a cylinder model in order to simulate the human body
shape.

 The typical -Speed curve can be divided into three main regions: pre
  critical zone, critical zone and post critical zone, depending if the
flow around the cylinder is laminar (pre-critical), fully turbulent
(post critical), shifting from laminar to turbulent (critical).

 In the critical area, a drop in occurs with a consequent drop in terms

of drag.
 - Speed where the shift from laminar to turbulent regime occurs, “the
velocity where the curve has gone through half its drop (/2).

 The main purpose of covering the cylinders with materials (fabrics) is to

add some roughness to the surface and then be able to shift the drag crisis
at the desired speed.

 Wearing a garment made out of the fabric with the specified surface
  roughness, leads to a lower drag employed on an athlete at this speed and
therefore an improvement in athlete’s performance could be achieved.

 In the case of double layer assembly, the effect of the base layer and
external layer on the was evaluated. A comparison between figure 2a and
2b shows that the top layer has a higher impact in terms of affecting the
drag.
  In order to quantify the impact of each layer on the aerodynamic
performances a parameter ΔTr was defined as:

  indicates how much each layer influences the shifting of the

 Higher value of corresponds to a higher influence of the fabric in shifting the . In

other words, the higher is, the less change in CF is required in order to shift to
the desired speed.

 Using the suffixes b and t respectively for bottom and top layer, two ΔTr can be
defined: which refers to the external (bottom) layer and which refers to the
base (top) layer.

 From the analysis of scattered plot figure 2c it is evident that the bottom
polyester layer plays a major role in terms of modifying the aerodynamic
parameters, however, the base (top) layer has a significant impact as well.

 The scatter plot in figure 2c indicates that the base layer gains more importance
( increases) in terms of aerodynamic performance when CFb increases.
 The scatter plot in figure 2a shows that the lower the CFt is, the lower
is. The same effect can be noticed for the bottom layer but a change in
CFb affects more than a change in CFt.
 

 The scatter plots in figures 2a and 2b shows that there is a linear

correlation between CF and for both top and bottom layers.
Moisture management properties and Cover
Factor relationship of double layer knitted fabric
assemblies

 Moisture management capability of the fabric/fabric assembly to

manage the transport of liquid moisture is mainly assessed on the basis
of three criterias:

o one way liquid transport capability

o overall moisture management capacity (OMMC)
o average moisture absorption rate at the bottom surface
 Figure 3 shows the relationship between CF of double layer assembly
and main aspects of moisture management properties.

 The scatter plot in figure 3a illustrates that one way moisture transport
capability (AOWT) of the fabric assembly decreases as CF of both layers
increases, confirming that the looser the construction in both layers the
easier it is for the moisture to diffuse through the fabric layers.

 This indicates that the fabric assembly with the higher values of one way
moisture transport capability could transport the liquid sweat quicker
from the skin layer to the external surface of the assembly, keeping the
skin dryer.
 OMMC versus cover factor (fig 3b) depicts that the tightness of the
overall assembly negatively influences the overall moisture management
capability. It is evident that sample 9 (CFt=1.4 and CFb=1.4) has the
lowest value of OMMC, but nevertheless, due to the fact that the values
of OMMC for all of the assemblies are in a range of 0.4 to 0.6, they can
be still classified as “good”.

 It was also established and is evident from the scatter plot in figure 3c
that as CF factors of both layers increase, the absorption rate of external
surface decreases, indicating that the tighter construction of the overall
assembly negatively influences the absorption rate.
 Conclusion

 Each layer in the fabric assembly has its own significant impact on the
aerodynamic and moisture management properties of the entire
assembly.

 However the results from the series of aerodynamic tests demonstrate

that the base layer gains more importance in terms of aerodynamic
performance when CF of the top layer increases.

 The moisture management performance, it is evident that the looser

the construction (lower the CF) of each of the constituted fabrics in
the assembly, the easier it is for the liquid moisture to diffuse thorough
the fabric and then to evaporate to the surrounding environment.
 It was also established that the
decrease in the size of the
openings within the knitted
structure of the layered assembly
leads to the increase of the and
decrease in one way moisture
transport capability (AOWT),
proving a strong correlation
 between
  these parameters (fig 4).

 The results presented here could

be used for a selection of suitable
fabrics for the performance
garments with optimised Fig-4
aerodynamic and moisture
management performance.
Thank You!