Design and fabrication of Temperature Sensing Fabric

Abstract

A temperature sensing fabric is described, along with the manufacturing techniques required to produce the fabric on a computerised flat-bed knitting machine. Knitted sensing fabrics with copper, nickel and tungsten wire elements have been produced with resistances ranging from 3 to 130 Ω. The most successful samples have been created using textile-wrapped, enamelled wire and not only the textile character of the sensing element was enhanced, but also its tensile strength. A mathematical relationship has been derived between the temperature and resistance of the knitted sensors and this can be used to optimise its dimensions to achieve a targeted reference resistance. The temperature-resistance curves demonstrate a linear trend with a coefficient of determination in the range of 0.99–0.999 and can be integrated into garments to monitor skin temperatures.