Effects of clothing ease and body postures on the air gap and clothing coverage
International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology
ISSN: 0955-6222
Article publication date: 10 June 2019
Issue publication date: 8 August 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of clothing ease and body postures on the size and distribution of the air gap as well as the body coverage with the clothing.
Design/methodology/approach
Visual and quantitative analyses were conducted using a 3D body scanner and Geomagic Software. The air gap size and clothing area factor (fcl) in three test coverall and seven selected postures were calculated and compared.
Findings
The results indicated that both the clothing ease and body postures had a strong effect on the air gap and clothing coverage, especially the more complex the postures, the wider the range of influence. Nevertheless, these effects varied over body regions, being stronger at the lower body than the upper body. The air gap size at the left side of the body was generally larger than the right side. It was also found that the clothing coverage was linearly correlated with the air gap size and could be employed as an indicator to evaluate clothing protective capabilities.
Practical implications
The findings suggested that greater attention should be paid to the protection and flexibility at the lower body and asymmetrical distribution of the air gap should be considered in the future air gap modeling.
Originality/value
The outcomes provided useful information to improve the protective clothing and develop more realistic air gap models to simulate the heat and mass transfer.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. The authors would like to acknowledge the Professor Jun Li for his instructions and support. The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from Shanghai Municipal Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 17ZR1400500); the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2232018G-08) and National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFB0309100).
Citation
Wang, S., Wang, X. and Wang, Y. (2019), "Effects of clothing ease and body postures on the air gap and clothing coverage", International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 578-594. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCST-12-2018-0158
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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