Physiological responses of different types clothing in cold weather condition – A wear trial study

Abstract

The subjective and objective evaluation ofdifferent types of jackets meant for cold weather condition has been done. Fourjackets have been produced with different types of insulative layers. Knitted polyesterfabric and polyester polymer coated fabric have been used as inner and outerlayers respectively for all the four jackets. Polyester needle-punched nonwoven fabrics produced from finer fibre (1.5 den) and hollow fibres (6 and15 denier), and air bonded nonwoven polyester fabrics are used as middle layer.The wear trial study has been performed in the environmental chamber at threedifferent temperatures, viz. 10°C, 0°C and -10 °C for 80 min duration accordingto EN ISO 10551:2001 and the jackets are evaluated by wearer for the thermalcomfort at start, middle and end of the test. The clothing layers used in thejackets are objectively evaluated for thermal and evaporative resistance bysweating guarded hot plate according to ASTM F 1868-Part C. In wear trailstudy, the body mass of the wearer with and without clothing, weight of jacketsand other clothing is measured before and after each test along with the microclimatetemperature and relative humidity at eight different parts of the bodyaccording to EN ISO 9886:2004. The Spearman’s correlation coefficient, calculatedbetween subjective and objective evaluation, is found to be high at lowerambient temperature. The jackets consisting of hollow fibres are found toperform better in cold weather conditions. The jacket showing maximum thermalinsulation in objective evaluation is found failed to give comfortable feel tothe wearer in wear trials.