Thermal and mass transport properties of polyester-cotton plated fabrics in relation to back layer fibre profiles and face layer yarn types

Clothing plays an important role in maintaining thermal equilibrium between a human body and the ambient environment by serving as a medium for heat, moisture vapour and liquid moisture transfer. The ability of fabric to maintain this equilibrium is related to thermo-physiological comfort. Plating is an innovative knitted fabric production technique to obtain bi-layered fabrics. An attempt has been made to engineer plated knit structures with such a combination of fibre cross section in the back (inner/next to skin) and the yarn type in the face (outer) layer, so that a rapid liquid transfer from back layer by wicking and quick liquid absorption and evaporation by the face layer can be achieved. Plated fabrics using the combination of triangular polyester fibre in the back and carded cotton yarn in the face layer showed the higher thermal resistance, higher absorbent capacity and would be warmer to the initial touch. However, the combination of combed cotton yarn with triangular polyester fibre resulted in fabrics with the higher air permeability, moisture vapour transmission rate and transplanar wicking.