Dynamic Transportation of Water Vapor through Cotton and Polyester-Cotton Blended Fabrics Part I: Indices Characterizing Moisture Buffering and their Interrelationships

The water vapor transport (WVT) through a set of cotton and polyester cotton fabrics has been analyzed under dynamic conditions using the CIRCOT WVTR Apparatus. The hygrograms obtained for cotton fabrics from the experiment show three distinct phases in water vapor transport rate (WVTR) with time, in which the first slower phase may be attributed to the moisture buffering by the fabric. In addition to the parameter T82.5% defined by earlier authors, five more parameters (α, β, R30, R90 and Tb) have been defined out of which β, R30 and Tb may be considered to represent moisture buffering in fabrics. In the case of P-C blended fabrics, the hygrogram was strongly influenced by the cotton content in the fabric apart from the parameters mentioned earlier.