Physiological comfort of biofunctional textiles

Abstract

Statistics show that the wear comfort is the most important property of clothing demanded by users and consumers. Hence, biofunctional textiles only have a high market potential, if they are comfortable. In this work it is shown how the thermophysiological and skin sensorial wear comfort of biofunctional textiles can be measured effectively by means of the Skin Model and skin sensorial test apparatus. From these measurements, wear comfort votes can be predicted, assessing a textile's wear comfort in practice. These wear comfort votes match exactly the subjective perceptions of test persons. As a result validated by wearer trials with human test subjects, biofunctional textiles can offer the same good wear comfort as classical, non-biofunctional materials. On the other hand, some of the biofunctional treatments lead to a perceivably poorer wear comfort. In particular, the skin sensorial comfort is negatively affected by hydrophobic, smooth (flat) surfaces that easily cling to sweat-wetted skin, or which tend to make textiles stiffer. As guidelines for the improvement of the thermophysiological or skin sensorial wear comfort, it is recommended to use hydrophilic treatments in a suitable concentration and spun yarns instead of filaments.