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Thermal Comfort of Textile Materials and Its

Assessment
By: Manoj Tiwari

Source: Textile Review

Providing Thermal comfort is considered as one of the most important requirement for a clothing system.
Every living object seeks for comfort in the surrounding, and clothing systems plays a vital role in this regard
by regulating and balancing the heat and moisture transportation from body to the environment and vice
versa. The feeling of comfort is relative to the surrounding environment and it need to be accessed
adequately. Basic Understanding of Thermal Comfort of Textile Materials, its importance and assessment
will be discussed in this paper. This article is part of a series of three papers on Thermal Comfort of Textile
Materials. In the next papers, Impact of Environmental changes on Thermal behaviour of textile Material and
Various standards used to access thermal behaviour and Thermal Manikins will be discussed.

Thermal Comfort: British Standard BS EN ISO 7730 defines Thermal Comfort as, "The condition of mind
which expresses satisfaction with the thermaI environment.”

The term Thermal Comfort is somewhat subjective thing which can be treated as psychological state of mind
in which the person is feeling too hot or too cold.

Defining Thermal comfort becomes more complex as environmental aspects as well as personal factors
need to be taken in the consideration.

Broadly there are two major factors affecting the thermal comfort-
• Environment
• Human/Personal

1. Air Temperature
This is nothing but the temperature of the surrounding and can be measured in degrees Celsius (°C) or
degrees Fahrenheit (°F).

2. Radiant Temperature
There may be a temperature difference form the body to the environment. Based on the temperature
difference flow of the heat may be from body to the environment or vice versa. The transmission of heat will
be more when the radiant temperature is more. In this manner the method/way of heat transmission is
through radiation.

3. Air/Wind Velocity
This is the speed of air movement in the environment nearby to the wearer. This is one of the major factors
which can be sensed by Human body. Hot or cold is felt when the temperature of air blown is higher or
lesser than that of the environment respectively. The unit of measurement of air velocity is mt. /sec or km.
/Hour

4. Humidity
It is a measure of water vapour present in the environment. Relative humidity is an indication of water
present in the surrounding environment in form of vapour to the maximum amount of water vapour the
surrounding air can have at that temperature.

Human or Personal Factor includes-

1. Clothing Insulation: Thermal comfort is highly dependent on the thermal insulation of the clothing of
wearer. This is a common practice or observation, we use lighter/thin clothes in summers compared to the
heavy/thick clothes in winters. It's nothing but making the human body comfortable in the environment by
using appropriate thermal insulation of clothing.
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2. Work rate/metabolic heat flow: As we work or do movements in form of physical activities, heat is
produced in our body and our body temperature goes up. The more physical work we do the more heat we
produce. The more heat we produce, the more heat needs to be lost so we don't overheat.

Thermal Comfort can be defined as "the condition of mind which expresses satisfaction with the thermal
environment". Comfort in all aspects is one of the key requirements for a Human being.

In clothing also comfort is needed, It may be Psychological as well as Physiological. When we feel hot, cold,
and dry or wet, we feel uncomfortable.

In clothing, comfort can be understood as results of some key environmental factors like- Heat
(Environmental Temperature), Moisture (Humidity) and Air (Wind).

Thermal Behaviour of Textile Materials

Thermal Properties of textiles have been investigated since 1930s; Heat flow through textile materials is
studied in to two segments named steady state and transient state.

In the steady state heat transfer the value of the temperature at a place doesn't change with the time, but it
changes with the position of that point, in easier words the temperature is variable with position but not
variable with time. While in the transient state the temperature varies with both time as well as position.

Most of the work done so far is based on the steady state mode of the heat transfer due to simplicity of the
testing, though the results are not very realistic. In the recent times the focus of the research has been
shifted to testing in transient modes or in another words, focus of research has been shifted to simulation of
actual conditions of wear, activity and environmental conditions to find a total measure of the thermal
comfort.

Prof. Dr. L. Hes explains the importance of thermal properties in wider prospective, as per Prof. Hes clothing
belongs to important external factors, which influence humans and their activity. Clothing should keep
humans in the state of psychological, sensorial and thermo physiological comfort.

D. Brojeshwari (2007) associates the thermal comfort with the thermal balance of the human body and its
thermal responses to the dynamic interactions with the clothing and environment systems. According to her
research heat and the moisture transmission behaviour of a fabric playa very important role in providing
thermo-physiological comfort to the wearer. The clothing should be capable of to pass moisture in the form
of sensible and insensible perspiration to be transmitted from the body to the environment in order to cool
the body.

The clothing material in contact with the human skin/wearer's skin should be dry to the touch to minimise the
heat flow from the body. Excess heat loss from the body may cause a clammy feeling.

Xiaoming Qian and Jintu Fan (2006), explain the clothing comfort with moisture-vapour transport between
body and environment and the thermal insulation. As per their research Clothing thermal insulation and
moisture vapour resistance are two most important factors in thermal environmental engineering, functional
clothing design and end use of clothing ensembles. The researchers treat them as intrinsic properties of
clothing, which depend on the fabric properties, garment construction, styling and fit which is governed by
body posture, motion and environmental conditions.

Some research work on Thermal sensation and Comfort has been done at Centre for Built Environment,
University of California, Berkley (2006), in this research; experiments were conducted on partial and whole
body heat sensation in the uniform environments. The results prove that in cool environments; hands and
feet feel colder than other body parts. The head, insensitive to cold but sensitive to warm, feels warmer than
the rest of the body in warm environments. Overall sensation and comfort follow the warmest local sensation
(head) in warm environments and the coldest (hands and feet) in cool environments. In the research, efforts
were put on developing scales to quantify the comfort, from very comfortable to very uncomfortable.

Need of Thermal Comfort

Human body tries to maintain a constant core temperature, that's 37.4°C, The actual value of this
temperature may vary slightly from person to person but it's always in a narrow range. The comfortable
surrounding environment temperature for human body in India is 21°C. When temperature is more or less
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than this body feels discomfort, as a result human body needs some external agency to maintain this
temperature, and clothing is one of the most common device to provide comfort in this regard.

The body must be kept in thermal balance in order to maintain the required comfort level; the metabolic heat
generated together with the heat received from external sources must be matched by the loss from the body
of an equivalent amount of heat. If the heat gain and the heat loss are not in balance then the body
temperature will either rise or fall, leading to a serious threat to Iife.

There has been a limited research on how human body responds to the thermal non-uniformities exist in the
surrounding environment. Such non-uniformities, it may be air temperature, air movement, radiation, and
conduction to surfaces etc; affect the human skin temperatures of the body's various parts and affects
person's overall thermal sensation and comfort.

In last decades, increased attention is paid to comfort properties of textiles and garments. The most
important parameters characterizing thermo physiological comfort of sport and protective garments are
thermal resistance and water vapour permeability. Contrary to common textiles, protective and functional
garments and some technical textiles like textile dressings are also used in wet state, which affects their
comfort properties. However, common measuring instruments mostly do not enable reliable measurement of
wet fabrics, due to long time of measurement, during which the fabrics get dry.

L. A. Gritzo and N. J. Alvares explains the importance of requirement of thermal testing for high performance
clothing in context of accessing the performance in a more realistic way, as per them Current test methods
used for quantifying the thermal performance of fire fighters' protective clothing are not providing information
needed to understand why fire fighters are being burned.

According to the studies done by American Society for Testing and Material, many of the thermal exposures
where fire fighters receive serious bum injuries are much lower than those specified in current test methods.
In addition, current test methods do not provide a means to measure performance changes associated with
wet garment systems.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is carrying out studies to identify measurement needs
for developing a better understanding of thermal performance. Overestimation of thermal performance of
high performance clothing while doing static testing has been proved. The instrument and methods capable
of correct assessment of performance are much required and there is a prime need to test these clothing in
well controlled and quantified environment.

According to researches done by Dr. Mark G. M. Richards and Niklaus G. Mattle, human tests of clothing
systems have some major flaws as below -

1. Results have poor reproducibility.

2. These are dependant on many factors including the person being tested, sex, age, diet; sleep
pattern, time of day and the activity prior to each test.
3. Tests need to be carried out under medical supervision.
4. Tests may be dangerous and may even be forbidden by law under extreme conditions practice
5. In adding to above all factors are very costly.

Use of a thermal manikin may short out all the above issues and such tests can be performed without the
possible risk to life and these systems are developed to simulate the human body with a high reproducibility.

Y. Li in his book named "The Science of Clothing Comfort", has explained the importance of research in
clothing comfort in context of development of an understanding of all the individual processes as below-

Physical process: It includes heat and moisture transport in the clothing, mechanical interactions between
the clothing and the human body and reflection and absorption of light, which works has physical stimuli to
the human body.

Physiological processes: These are related to thermal balance of the body, and its thermoregulatory
responses and interactions with the clothing as well as environment.

Neurophysiologic processes: These are related to the mechanisms of the sensory reception system of the
body in the skin, eyes and other organs, by which sensory signals are formulated from the interaction of the
body with clothing and surrounding environments.
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Psychological Processes: This is related to the processes of brain which form subjective perception of
sensory sensation and deciding the preferences based on past experiences and internal desires."

Assessment of the thermal behaviour

Validation and Quantification of the results are one of the prime objectives of any testing. The same is true
with Thermal Behaviour also, there are many test methods and instruments have been developed with an
objective of real assessment of the performance and at the same time it should be practical, simple to
operate.

As stated earlier, Thermal behaviour testing for textiles consists of two possible ways-

1. Steady State Testing: These are mainly done in uniform environmental conditions, easy to operate and
easy to understand but lack in addressing the real situation in which environmental conditions do vary and
the wearer is also performing some task.

The relevance of such tests is questioned by many researchers as these testing conditions may fail to
access the real performance of the clothing. Ingvar Holmear, Department of Occupational Medicine, National
Institute for Worki:1g Life, 501na, Sweden has done some important researches and observed and
questioned on the relevance of results from such tests and it differs from the actual properties of the
clothing. It was observed that insulation values were too high; evaporation resistance values are often too
low or not available at all, while it plays very importance role in the thermal insulation prediction.

Hes, states that most of the steady state tests are unable to accommodate the factors which affect the
thermal performance. As per him common measuring instruments are unable to give reliable results in case
the material is wet, and it has a great importance in accessing the performance for high performance
clothing or functional clothing.

2. Dynamic State testing: These tests are performed in real or near to the real environment, the objective is
to achieve such results by which real assessment of the clothing performance can be done and if required
corrective actions can be taken.

Psikuta Agnieszka in his research on Development of an 'artificial human' for clothing research says that
heat and mass transfer in physically active person is a complex process and which need to be study
carefully. The thermal properties of clothing depend on both the factors that is properties of the textiles used
for the garment as well as the properties of air and its transmission between the skin and clothing, and
clothing layers, and on the air layer adjacent to the outer surface of clothing. The steady state testing are
done with either constant factors it may be homogenous surface temperature or power delivered, but unable
to assess the changes happened in the thermal properties due to physiological responses.

There are two ways to perform dynamic tests-

1. Perform the tests on humans in actual conditions
2. Tests done in controlled environments by simulation of environmental conditions

Field environments are generally difficult to operate and lack is results reproducibility. These are done in real
conditions on humans in the natural environment. Being dependent on factors like - person being tested,
sex, age, BMI (body - mass index), time and duration of the activity make it difficult. Apart from it while doing
all this there are issues related to feasibility of conducting these tests, as complete set-up has to be
established on the field, which is most of the times not workable.

On the other hand tests done while simulating the real environment in laboratory may be done by use of
thermal manikins and environment simulation in laboratories, this has very good result reproducibility with
cost effectiveness. But these also have some limitations like- no information on subjective human responses
like pain and relax.
Their major benefits are as below -

• Modeling and assessing potentially hazardous environments

• Assessing clothing systems prior to construction
• Reduce costs and time-scales for equipment procurement
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Thermal Testing Method

Thermal balance of the human body and its responses to the dynamic interactions with the clothing and
environment systems is responsible for the thermal comfort. Most of the researchers consider heat and the
moisture transmission behaviour of a fabric as vital factors deciding the thermo physiological comfort.

Measurement of thermal conductivity

The transmission of heat through clothing may involve conduction process, which is heat flow through
fibre/textile material and the entrapped air and radiation process. So, while referring thermal conductivity,
heat flow by all the possible means has to be considered and measured.

A. Constant Temperature method: This gives the most accurate results for thermal resistance. The
sample, for which thermal resistance need to be tested is kept on an isothermal plate by keeping insulation
from all the sides.

The energy required to keep the temperature constant to this plate is calculated to know the thermal
resistant of the sample.

Togmeter works on the same principle, in a Togmeter thermostatically controlled heating plate is covered
with a layer of insulating board of known thermal resistance, and then the temperature is measured at both
the faces of this plate.

1. Single Plate Method: In this specimen is kept on

the heated plate which is covered with the material of
a known thermal resistance and another face of the
material is kept open/uncovered. The air which is
exposed to the upper face of the specimen also has
some thermal resistance and that need to be
considered while doing the observations. Below figure
(Fig. 1) shows the schematic presentation of the
same.

2. Two Plates Method: In the two plate method, the

specimen is placed between heated plate and an
insulated top plate. The top plate is made light weight
to avoid any compression of the specimen. Then the
heater temperature (T1), temperature between the
test plate and the sample (T2) and temperature
between the top plate and the specimen (T3) is
measured, to calculate the thermal resistance. Below
figure (Fig. 2) shows the schematic presentation of the same.

Guarded Hot Plate: This is one of the mostly used instrument

by the researchers a guarded hot plate instrument is provides
a unidirectional flow of heat up to some extent. This is again
based on constant temperature method. Here the test plate is
surrounded by guarded ring which is of the same temperature
of the heated plate and it is insulated from top as well as
bottom. Guarded hot plate method is employed in two
standards, A5TM D 1518(2000) and B5 4745(1974).

The whole apparatus is covered by a hood, which make sure

still air environment. The surrounding environmental
conditions are kept between 4.5 to 21°C and 20-80% RH.

Before taking the observations, the test fabric is allowed to

reach equilibrium and it takes some time approx. 30 min. Fig.
3 shows the schematic presentation of a Guarded Hot Plate.

Hot Cylinder Method: In this method the specimen is

wrapped around a cylinder and the temperature of the cylinder
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is kept constant. The complete assembly is then kept in another cylinder and immersed in water.

This method has one disadvantage; we need to have minimum one seam on the specimen to wrap it around
the hot cylinder.

Guarded Hot Semi-Cylinder method: In this method the seam problem is eliminated as testing is done
only the half portion of the cylinder, the functioning is same as guarded hot plate method, here this semi-
cylinder is also encompassed in both the sides by guard rings and a constant heat flow is maintained.

B. Cooling Method: This is done by measuring the cooling rate. One hot body is surrounded by a fabric
specimen whose thermal insulation is need to be tested and the outer surface of the specimen is exposed to
the surrounding air, this method was used in "Kata-thermometer" by Black and Methew (1934)

C. Disc Method: In this method, the fabric is sandwiched between two discs having different temperature
and the heat flow is measured by varying the temperature difference, this gives thermal transitivity in
particular conditions of the experiment. Here the specimen is tested in compressed state and thus have less
air than that of a normal wearing condition.

D. Measurement of propagation of wave method: In this method damping of heat wave/pulses by the
4
specimen is studied. Multiple waves 0f temperature gradients are passed through the specimen and heat
flux through the sample is calculated.

E. TILMET 75 Tester: This is one extension of the hot plate method, developed by scientist Has and
inspired from Japanese Thermo-Labo Device. The instrument is capable of measuring thermal conductivity
of a flat textile material in a time of few minutes even for the materials having thickness more than 0.57 mm.
The temperature of the heated plate equals 37"C, whereas the 'cold' plate is cooled with tap water. The heat
stream and the surface temperature of the product tested are measured electrically.

Alambeta Thermal Tester: Alambeta thermal property tester was developed by

University of Liberec, Czech Republic. It serves two purposes-

• Can be used for steady state and transient thermal properties for a
compressible textile material (Heat flow measurement)
• Can calculate thickness of the material

The specimen is kept between two plates, one is hot and anther is cold. A pressure
of 200 Pa is kept in the hot plate while contacting the specimen. With the heat flux
sensors, the flow of heat is measured, while hot plate touches the specimen. One
observation time is 30-50 sec.

Figure 5: ALAM8ETA
Thermal Tester

1. Heat Flow Measurement Section: It consists of Heat flux sensors, heater and hot plate and movable top
plate. Initially the temperature of the bottom plate is sensed by the thermal sensor as per the environmental
temperature. Then the top plate temperature is set as per requirement, once the top plate temperature
reaches to the limit its set, the top plate drops down on to the specimen. While hot plate touches the
Specimen, the heat flow is measured by the heat flux sensor.

2. Thickness Measurement Section: It's done with the help of a threaded shaft with a disc. By rotation of
disc/Shaft, the thickness of the textile material is measured, by counting the number of revolutions by the
encoded disc.

3. Computer Interface section: This is for computer interface with microcontrollers to carry out the
calculations in the steady state and transient heat flow. Thermal Insulation and thermal resistance value are
calculated with the help of computer interface.

Measurement of Water-Vapour Permeability

Perspiration is an important mechanism by which body tends to loose/dissipate heat from the body skin and
tries to keep the body temperature low. There are two forms of perspirations.
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• In the form of vapour which comes out from the body and passes through the clothing
• In the form of sweat, this is actually liquid discharge from the skin pores, in sweating the clothing
gets wet.

The perspiration mechanism affects the water-vapour transport capabilities of the clothing; sometimes it
accumulates on the inner layer or in-between the clothing layers and chokes the pores of clothing. This
situation affects the thermal insulation of the clothing and wearer may feel uncomfortable.

There are some mostly used methods to measure Water-Vapour permeability of the textile material; some of
them are as below-

1. Cup Method: In this method (British Standard) the specimen is sealed over a disc of open mouth and
disc contains water and then the complete assembly is kept in the testing environment. Then weighing is
done after a period of time and water-vapour transfer through the textile material is calculated.
The dish is filled with the distilled water and an air gap of 10.00 mm is left between the fabric and the water
level. Then by sealing its make sure that water-vapour can pass only through the textile material. Side by
side, another set up is also kept having a reference fabric, the water-vapour permeability index is calculated
in reference of this fabric. The internal standard diameter of the disc and specimen is 96.0 mm.

While testing first weighing is done when equilibrium is set, around 1 hr. then the instrument is left for
overnight and then final weight is taken.

By calculating the weight loss, the water-vapour permeability is calculated by using below formula-
2
Water-Vapour Permeability = 24 M/At (Grams/Meter /Hour or day)
Where: M- Loss in mass (In grams)
A-Internal Area of the specimen exposed to air (Meter2)
t- Time between weighings (Hrs. or Days)
The schematic diagram of the Cup method is shown in below figure (Fig. 6)

The ASTM E 96-80 method is having only 2 differences

from the above BS method.

1. The air gap is kept 19.0 mm instead of 1 0.0 mm

2. Air Velocity of 2.8 msn/Sec is used over the
surface of the specimen

2. Sweating Guarded Hot Plate Method: This is

one alternative of the cup method but having
option to sweat so that, simulation of sweat can
be done while testing. In this method one hot
plate with pores is kept over the water, it makes
sweating possible from the plate. The
temperature of the sweating plate is kept constant
and to make sure this a known power supply is
provided to the plate.

As shown in Fig. 8, the Guarded Sweating Hot Plate is developed by

Northwest Measurement technology, USA. This system was
designed in accordance with ISO 11092 and ASTM F1868 to
measure both Thermal Resistance and Vapour Resistance
characteristics.

This Sweating hot plate is equipped with integral sweating surface,

variable speed airflow hood; gravity fed fluid supply system, and
ambient temperature and humidity Probes, adjustable height airflow
hood and computer controlled data logging system.

Figure 8: Sweating Hot Plate with Computer Data Logging System

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Conclusion

Thermal behavior of the clothing decides the level of utility in the working environment and adds value to the
performance of the clothing. Clothing works as an intermediate agency between human body and the
surrounding environment, by thermoregulation the internal climate between human body and clothing, it tries
to make wearer comfortable. Importance of Heat transfer and moisture transmission is taken very keenly by
the researchers in developing the understanding comfort behaviour of textiIe materials. Thermo-
physiological balance is maintained by the clothing through perspiration in form of vapour as well as liquid.
The clothing should be capable enough to allow perspiration to be transferred to the surrounding
environment in order to maintaining the thermal balance of the body.

References:

(1) "what is Thermal Comfort". http://www.hse.gov.uk/temperature/thermal/ explained.htm, accessed on 20-

03-2010
(2) Collier Billie J. and Epps Helen H.; "Textile Testing and Analysis. Comfort and Related Physical
Properties of Textiles",(1999),pp. 282
(3) Kothari Y.K.; "Assessment of Thermal Properties of Functional Cold Climate Clothing, CEP on
Engineering of Functional Clothing", liT Delhi, 08-12 Dee. 2009
(4) Hes Dr. L.;" Thermal Comfort Properties of Textiie Fabrics in Wet State", accessed from
www.teknikfuarcilik.com/ ... /bbur_master_islak_kumas_ing.pdf, , on 26-12-2009
(5) Das Brojeshwari, Das A., Kothari Y.K., Fangueiro R., Araujo M. de; "Moisture transmission through
textiles Part II: Evaluation Methods and Mathematical Modelling", AUTEX Research Journal, Vol. 7, N03,
Septernber 2007 © AUTEX, accessed from http://www.autexrj.org/N03 2007/0236.pdf 194 on 11-03-2010
(6) Oian Xiaorning and Fan Jintu; "Prediction of Clothing Thermal Insulation and Moisture Vapour
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accessed frorn www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, on 18-02-201 0
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environmental conditions", Center for the Built Environment (2005), University of California, Published in
Journal of Thermal Biology 31,53 - 59,2006 accessed from www.elsevier.comon 14-12-2010
(8) Saville B P; "Physical testing of textiles", "Carnbridge", The Textile Institute/ Woodhead Publishing
Limited, Chapter 8, Comfort, pp 209
(9) DeMars, K. A., Henderson, W. P., and Liu, M.; "Thermal Measurements for Fire Fighters' Protective
Clothing," Thermal Measurements: The Foundation of Fire Standards, ASTMSTP 1427, L. A. Gritzo and N.
J. Alvares, Eds., American Society for Testing and Materials, West Conshohocken, PA, 2002, accessed
from www.fire.nist.gov/bfripubs/fire03/art047.htmlon 05-01-2010
(10) Richards Mark G. M., Mattie Niklaus G.; "A Sweating Agile Therrnal Manikin (SAM) Developed to Test
Complete Clothing Systems Under Normal and Extreme Conditions", EMPA, Swiss Federal Laboratories for
Materials Testing and Research, accessed on 14-12-2009
(11) Li. Y; "The Science of Clothing Comfort", The Textile Institute, (2001)
(12) Holmear Ingvar; "The Role of Performance Tests, Manikins and Test Houses in Defining Clothing
Characteristics Relevant to Risk Assessment", accessed from http://annhyg.oxfordjournals.org on 11-03-
2010
(13) Agnieszka Psikuta: "Development of an 'artificial human' for clothing research", accessed from
https://www.dora.dmu.ac.uk;bitstrearn/handle/2086/2 7 65/Thesis _Psikuta_ final_DMU.pdf on 11-03-2010
(14) Ziegler Stefan and Kot Jadwiga Kucharska; "Estirnation oi Ihe Overall Heat-transfer Coefficient Through
a Textile Layer", FIBRES & TEXTILES in Eastern Europe January / Decernber 2006, Vol. 14, No.5 (59),
accessed frorn www.fibtex. loc/z.pI/59_26_1 03.pdf on26-12-2009
(15)"Sweating Guarded Hot Plate", accessed from http://www.mtnw-usa.com/therrna
isysterns/pdf/Sweating_ Hotplate _ brochure.pdf on 2903-2010

The author is Asst. Professor Dept. of Fashion Technology National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT),
Gandhinagar

Originally Published in Textile Review, September 2010

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