Effect of Selected Fabric Construction Elements on Wicking Rates of PET Fabrics

Abstract

Apparel has an important role in keeping the body comfortable by maintaining the needed equilibrium state between the human body and the environment by getting rid of sweat which is exerted due to the physical activity. This happens through a multitude of mechanisms, one being the capillary action which is also known as wicking. Wicking is defined as "A spontaneous transport of liquid driven into a porous system by capillary forces". This paper is concerned by studying effect of basic fabric weaves and weft densities of synthetic fabrics (PET) on vertical and horizontal wicking rates and their relation to fabric packing factor. For this aim, 9 samples 100% PET woven samples varying in weave type (plain 1/1-basket 2/2-twill 1/3) and three pick densities were produced, taking into account that the other production parameters were constant.The experiment showed that wicking rate was influenced by fabric porosity. Vertical wicking rate increases with the increase of the porosity, while horizontal wicking rate decreases with the increase of porosity.