The Interaction of Water with Fabrics

Abstract

This study examines the interaction between water and a range of fabrics because of claims that synthetic fibers such as polypropylene do not pick up moisture and so when made into active wear, leave the wearer warm and dry. We have found that all fiber types, when made into fabrics, pick up water, with a strong correlation between a fabric's thickness and the amount of water it picks up freely expressed in absolute terms rather than percent of its mass. We have also found that properties relevant to clothing on an exercising person, such as drying time and energy required to evaporate water from under and through a dry fabric or dry a wet fabric, depend on the amount of water the fabric picks up, not fiber type. The amount of water wicked from one layer to another depends on pore sizes and their corresponding volumes. These results are supported by manikin and human subject experiments.