review paper on wickability of fabrics

7/24/2019 Review Paper on wickability of fabrics

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Review paper on wickability of fabrics

Somnath Nandy

[NIFT Kolkata snandy2!yahoo"com#$%&'(TI)'

The process of wicking in knitted fabrics has been thoroughly analyzed in this

review. The eect of dierent liquids on wickability, the eect of tightness of

the fabric structure has been referred to. It has also been considered that

how the usage of blended and functional yarns for fabric construction and

application of hydrophilic nishes aects wicking activities. Also, paraeters

for prediction of wicking have been discussed.

INTR$*+(TI$N

!icking is the spontaneous "ow of liquid in a porous solution, driven by

capillary forces. This "ow of the liquid is generally due to capillarity and

usually occurs in an a porous ediu. This process is in"uenced by various

properties of the liquid such as viscosity, density, surface tension. The

surface wetting forces of the bers, ber density, yarn construction, the

geoetric conguration of the pore as well as the internal construction of the

fabric also takes part in deterining the wicking behavior of the fabric.

#Hsieh, 1995; Marchal 2001$. Though liquid properties can be easily

deterined, it is ipossible to easure the pore structure with precision.These are however the e%periental factors, but in reality, it is by the usage

of garents, a considerable alteration in the pore structure occurs by the

relocation of bers in the fabric.

I,-$RT.N('

It is known that our body releases about &' of sweat in an hour and the

fabric worn close to the skin will gets wet. This dapened fabric traps the

body(s heat and akes the person feel uneasy. )o, the fabric worn close to

the skin should serve the purpose of quickly dissipating the oisture in theatosphere. Thus, the fabric should possess two iportant properties* the

principal property being to soak the sweat fro the skin, followed by its

property to dispel the sae into the atosphere so that the person feels

rela%ed. Thus, wicking is an iportant property to increase the

cofortability of fabrics used by athletes, industrial unifors, defense

services #e.g. ary soldier, cops, re ghters etc$ and even of daily wear.


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This capillary wetting of te%tiles by action of liquids is also of priary

iportance in cleaning, dyeing and nishing activities.

%.(K/R$+N*

Taking into account, the various conditions and situations of "uid transport

in fabric, researchers have been able to ark o two processes + wick

ability and wettability- #hali et al$. As described earlier, wick ability occurs

due to capillary action, but wettability e%plains the initial behavior of a ber,

yarn or fabric, when brought into contact with water #/ornet and 0ehta$.

Though they can be argued to be separate phenoena, wicking, which is the

transport of liquids in a porous ediu, occurs after wetting of the fabric

surface, due to capillary forces that arise fro there. Thus, wicking is

spontaneous to wetting, and occurs due to capillary action. 1apillary actionor capillarity can be dened as the acroscopic otion or "ow of a liquid

under the in"uence of its own surface and interfacial forces. 1apillarity is

based on the interolecular forces of cohesion and adhesion. Also, according

to the laws of capillarity, "uid "ow will be faster in a void with a large

capillary radius than one with a saller radius. Another ter associated with

wicking is pereability which can be dened as the conductivity of the

porous ediu with respect to pereation by a 2ewtonian "uid.

3ereability is dependent not only on pore sizes but also on their relative

location throughout the fabric.

.N.01SIS

4y analyzing the work of previous researchers, it has been found that the

otion of "uid in the fabric is greatly in"uenced by the arrangeent of the

ber in the fabric #Adams andRebenfeld 1987, Hsieh, 1995, Marchal 2001;

Minor and Schwart 19!0$. The ber arrangeent in yarns also in"uences

the rate of travel of the "uid and also controls the capillary size and

continuity of "ow #Hollies, "aessin#er, $atson %a#at&, 1957$. 0oreover, it

has also been theorized that each 5unction of yarn intersection outs as a new

repository and it disperses all branches equally, #0inor and )chwartz, &678$.In any syste where capillarity causes relative otion between a solid and a

liquid, the shape of the solid surfaces is an iportant factor, which dictates

the rate and direction of liquid "ow. !hen a drop of "uid is placed on the

fabric, it will spread under the capillary forces and the process of spreading

can be appropriately split into two phases + 9irst when the liquid stays on the


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surface and second when it is copletely seeps into the substrate. #'illes(ie

1958$

In an e%perient conducted by )* +atil, - ane and +. Ramesh

/-"Ss e3tile and n#ineerin# 4nstitte, 4chal6arani, 4ndiafrom he

*ornal ofthe e3tile 4nstitte :ol100, 57>!5? the wickingbehavior of weft:knitted fabrics such as single 5ersey, single pique, double

pique and honeycob were docuented. The wicking test was perfored

using various liquids like distilled water, articial sweat solution, tap water

and hot water. The test was done in all three directions i.e. wale, course and

bias. A vertical wicking test was perfored for each saple and the average

was considered.

It was observed that the single 5ersey structure showed higher rate of

wicking behavior for all liquids, followed by honeycob, double pique and

single pique. The structural cell stitch length was also seen to be a a5orfactor in deterining the wicking length. /igher the value of the structural

stitch length, higher is the wicking length observed for all the structure of

liquids. Also it was seen that the wicking behaviour is greater in the wale

direction than the course and bias. The rate of wicking in the fabric was seen

to be inversely related to the tie. )o as tie progressed the rate of wicking

dropped fro ;:7 to


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Test 0ethod &6;:10>7, amil


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blended fabrics. It was observed that the enzye treated fabrics e%hibited

the highest wicking activity followed by the dyed and non:dyed bers#due to

increase in space between the bers$.The dyeing process caused the

polyester bers to swell, thus resulting in better wicking activity. It was also

observed that with the increase in the viscose coponent of the fabric the

wicking behavior gradually increased #viscose(s serrated cross section

creates ore space in between the bers$

2ot only blended bers, but also using fnctional Eber &arns

in"uences the oisture transport properties of knitted fabrics, as has been

investigated by R. an#eiro, A. il#eiras and . Sotinho /-e(t of te3tile

and n#ineerin#, )ni@ersit& of Minho, 'imares, +ort#al and Fie Miedi

/-e(t of "nittin# and 'arment, e3tile 4nstitte of -on# Ha

)ni@ersit&,hinaSorceB e3tile Research *ornal, :ol 80/15?.They have

used a diverse range of functional bers, including polyester trilobal "at

#3K)$, polypropylene#33$, polyaide#3A$, elastane#K'$, polyester cool

a%L#1'$, 34T, Mry:releaseL #MB$ and viscose outlastL #J@$. Two sets of

plated knit structures were produced using 3K) on the face side and the

others on the back side and the other set was ade with 33 on the knit face

N the others on the back face. After the e%perient it was found that the

wicking behavior of the fabrics depended priarily on the nature of the

constituent yarns. It was observed that during the rst ve inutes, the

height of wicking in 3K):J@ fabrics was higher and that of K' was lower. The

wicking height of 1' was also considerable. These observations can be

attributed to the irregular cross:sectional shapes of J@ N 1'. Also, J@ is ahydrophilic ber having good water absorption property. 3K) ber also has a

ne linear ass per laent and thus it also e%hibits better capillary action.

@n the contrary, fabric saples containing 33 e%hibited poor wickability

behavior.

It is interesting to note that applying hydrophilic nishes to the fabric

also enhances its wicking properties. The charged polar groups of such

copounds attract water olecules and enhance its water absorbing

properties. In the following e%perient conducted by

#OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OOOOOOOOOOO.OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.$FAsian

Te%tile Cournal, 0arch


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higher test results. This shows that in fabrics with such nishes, oisture is

quickly reoved fro the fabric, resulting in faster cofort for the wearer.

Abundant wicking tests for te%tile fabrics are known. They can be stated

as follows * strip, spot plate, siphon, oisture anageent# /u, 'i, eung,

!ongN Ru,


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e%perientalists have suggested that this e%perient protocol be further

e%plored to produce eWcient products with pre:dened wicking behavior.

review paper on wickability of fabrics

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