Prediction of the water evaporation rate of wet textile materials in a pre-defined environment

Abstract

Purpose

The water evaporation rate (WER) is not only crucial for fabric drying, but also an important parameter affecting cooling from a body wearing sweat wetted clothing. The purpose of this paper is to predict the WERs of wet textile materials in a pre-defined environment.

Design/methodology/approach

The maximum water evaporation rate (WER_max) from a saturated surface in a pre-defined environment was first predicted based on the Lewis relationship between the evaporative and the convective heat transfer in this paper. The prediction results were validated by the comparisons with experimental measurements in various environments obtained in this paper and reported in the literature.

Findings

Experiment results show that the ratios of WERs to WER_max are lower than 100 percent but higher than 50 percent, which confirmed that the prediction of WER_max is reliable. The temperature decrease of the wet material surface due to evaporation was considered to account for the difference between measured WERs and the WERmax, and the WER variation among materials. The lower ratios of WERs to WER_max in the higher wind condition were speculated to be due to the greater temperature decrease caused by the increased evaporation.

Practical implications

It provides a reliable way to obtain both WER_max and WER (WER_max multiplied by a proper ratio), which can be useful in clothing physiological modeling to predict clothing comfort.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the understanding of the evaporation process of textile materials.

Citation

Liu, S.-R., Dai, X.-Q. and Hong, Y. (2020), "Prediction of the water evaporation rate of wet textile materials in a pre-defined environment", International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 356-365. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCST-06-2019-0077