Concurrent determination of absorption and wickability of fabrics: A new test method

Generation of metabolic sweat is a natural outcome of a person involved in strenuous activity. The absorption of the sweat by a garment and its transportation through and across the fabric where it is evaporated are claimed by some researchers to aid comfort. The measurement of absorption and wicking is therefore of topical interest. A number of test methods have been devised and many of these have been adopted as standards, but these tests give only fragmented information on the absorptive capabilities of a fabric. These are the vertical-strip and the porous-plate tests, Methods that measure both these parameters are qualitative. There is therefore a need to develop a test method that will quantitatively determine both absorption and wicking properties, in order to obtain much broader information on the moisture-management properties of the fabric. Such a test method has been devised by using the nat porous plate. In addition to the quantitative measurement of physical parameters required for defining absorption properties of a fabric, attempts have been made to devise physiologically related absorption parameters that could be directly compared with the metabolic-sweat output of a person involved in high-activity sport.