Thermal comfort properties of cotton/spandex single jersey knitted fabric

Abstract

Knitted fabrics are characterized by comfort compared to woven fabrics due to their high extensibility and airpermeability, but they have lower dimensional stability after repeated washing especially single jersey knitted fabric(SJKF). Therefore, the spandex (Lycra) core-spun yarns are used to maintain the dimensions of knitted fabrics duringuse and after repeated stresses. In this study, nine elastic SJKF samples were produced at three levels of loop lengthand spandex percent using yarn linear density 30/1 Ne. For comparison, three 100% cotton knitted samples wereproduced with the same levels of loop length and yarn count. The dimensional and thermal comfort properties of thelong-stretch samples were compared with the short-stretch cotton knitted fabric. The thermal comfort properties (thermalconductivity, resistance, absorptivity, and water vapour permeability), air permeability, and dimensional properties weremeasured and compared to 100% cotton samples. The results showed that the stitch density, fabric density, fabricthickness, and thermal resistance increased, whereas the air, water vapour permeability, and spirality angle decreasedin cotton/spandex samples.