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Thermal insulation is important to achieve energy efficiency in a buildings’ lifespan while maintaining comfort. Traditionally, the majority of insulation in buildings is man-made petroleum based products with limited or no-end life usage. However, from an environmental and economic sustainability perspective, they are not sustainable as natural resources are finite and in danger of run-out. Furthermore, they are also highly influenced by the increasing price and the ongoing scarcity of fossil fuel oils. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper introduces soap based insulation from recycled materials as a sustainable alternative to petroleum counterparts. The methodology is lab based experimentation and iterative tests. The phased based research process for the incremental development of the soap based thermal insulation is explained.

Findings reveal that soap based insulation can be one possible way forward in the quest for natural and sustainable thermal insulation from recycled products to preserve and conserve the sustainable environment.

Thus, the paper provides a unique environmentally friendly approach as an alternative to those existing petroleum counterparts for thermal insulation in buildings.

The purpose of this paper is to develop artificial neural networks (ANNs) allowing us to simulate the local thermal insulation of clothing protecting against cold on a basis of the characteristics of materials and design solutions used.

For this purpose, laboratory tests of thermal insulation of clothing protecting against cold as well as thermal resistance of textile systems used in the clothing were performed. These tests were conducted with a use of thermal manikin and so-called skin model, respectively. On a basis of results gathered, 12 ANNs were developed that correspond to each thermal manikin’s segment besides hands and feet which are not covered by protective clothing.

In order to obtain high level of simulations, optimization measures for the developed ANNs were introduced. Finally, conducted validation indicated a very high correlation (above 0.95) between theoretical and experimental results, as well as a low error of the simulations (max 8 percent).

The literature reports addressing the problem of modeling thermal insulation of clothing focus mainly on the impact of the degree of fit and the velocity of air movement on thermal insulation properties, whereas reports dedicated to modeling the impact of the construction of clothing protecting against cold as well as of diverse material systems used within one design of clothing on its thermal insulation are scarce.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of design solutions used in clothing on the thermal resistance of the material systems from which the clothing is made, design solutions used in clothing on its thermal insulation and clothing size on its thermal insulation properties.

This study involved laboratory tests of clothing protecting against cold and textile systems used in this type of garment using a “skin model” test stand and a thermal manikin.

Analysis of the results obtained from tests carried out showed that the design solutions used in a garment can model its local and overall insulation. It was found that using a bib in trousers has a dominant influence on the thermal properties of clothing. An important parameter is also the use of a hood, as well as the length of the jacket. No significant effect of other structural solutions, such as jacket fastening, pockets and reflective tapes, on the thermal performance of the clothing set was noted.

Although the reports available in the literature pay a lot of attention to the impact of the design of clothing protecting against cold on its thermal performance, most of the presented research results relate to the aspects of fit, whereas the analyses of the effects of other aspects of garment construction on thermal properties are lacking. Therefore, the analysis of the impact of design solutions used in clothing on its thermal insulation properties is a key original factor of this paper.

Women in Western Europe wore empire style robes which were made with a light and thin fabric revealing their body. To stress the silhouette of their body, they applied oil to it or sprayed water on the robe so that it would cling to the body, and most women suffered from muslin disease, meaning flu and tuberculosis of the lungs in winter season. The purpose of this paper is to examine the thermal insulation of the robe with spencer jacket in dry and wet environment through thermal manikin experiments.

Three kinds of spencer jacket were made based on historical evidence and data, and experimental work for thermal insulation was conducted using a thermal manikin. The study measured the total thermal resistance of dress-jacket set: weight of the clothing before and after wetting, thermal insulation of the spencer jackets and set of clothing in dry and wet conditions, electric power consumption of the set of clothing in the wet condition and temperature inside the clothing and surface temperature of the wet set of clothing.

The thermal insulation of the robe with spencer jacket in the wet condition was in the range of 0.135-0.144 clo, which was about 80 percent lower than the range of values of 0.73-0.79 clo measured in the dry condition. This means that women felt uncomfortable in wetting condition or raining environment even when wearing the robe with a spencer jacket. Thermal insulation of clothing was dependent to the air gap under garment, clothing layers, ventilation through fabric and body part.

In this study, the thermal insulation of an empire style robe with spencer jacket in wet condition was measured using a dry thermal manikin, not with the sweating manikin. The authors measure the electric power consumption according to drying time of the clothing set at the body parts. In order to study the effect of different materials and clothing wetting, comparison experiments were conducted in dry and wet conditions using the rinse cycle of washing machine.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the thermal insulation of protective clothing with multilayer gaps in low-level heat exposures.

Nine different combinations of protective clothing systems with multiple air gaps are used to measure the thermal insulation by a self-designed bench-scale test apparatus in different levels of an external thermal radiation of 2-10 kW/m2. The outside and inside surface temperatures of each fabric layer are also measured to calculate the local thermal insulation of each fabric layer and each air gap.

The results show that the total thermal insulation of protective clothing under thermal radiation is less than that in normal environments, and the exposed thermal radiation will worsen the total thermal insulation of the multilayer fabric systems. Air gap plays a positive role in the total thermal insulation, and thus provides the enhanced thermal protection. It is also suggested that the local resistance of the air gap closer to the external thermal radiation is more easily affected by the thermal radiation, due to the different heat transfer ways in the fabric system and the external thermal radiation.

Effects of air gap on the thermal insulation of protective clothing, and contribution of the local thermal resistance of each fabric layer and each air gap to the total thermal insulation.

Empire style fashion, Greek-Roman style robe with bare shoulder and chest and short sleeved with long gloves which created a slim silhouette, was worn even in winter season in Europe, where average temperature is 0-5°C. Most women suffered with catching cold and thousands caught flu and tuberculosis of the lungs, called muslin disease. The purpose of this paper is to find out clothing insulation of the robe by measuring the thermal resistance and to guess how cold they felt in this robe in winter time.

The authors performed the investigation on original robe shape with based on historical evidence and data, such as drawings, sketches, pattern books and sewing books, and reproduced a representative robe costume and tested its thermal insulation. The fabrics of robe were thin wool, silk and cotton following the literature evidence and preserved costume. Thermal insulation of the robes was measured using thermal manikin with the test method ISO 15831. The authors analyzed the thermal insulation of reconstructed robes with an inner cotton breech as for daily use and tested them wrapped with cashmere shawl on manikin shoulder as for severe cold weather.

The dress robes had the range of 0.61-0.67 clo regardless of the type of fabric materials, and 0.80-0.81 clo with the cashmere shawl. These values were not enough for women to keep body temperature or comfort in winter time.

This study combined fashion historic theory for costume reproduction with clothing science and technology for thermal insulation. Combination of costume history, construction technology and measurement engineering is the ingenious idea, and the combination of historical and scientific research evidences interdisciplinary originality.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the thermal insulation and water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) according to the type of the filling material, and compared the thermal insulation in the dynamic state considering actual wearing conditions.

The thermal insulation and WVTR were evaluated in a standard state depending on the type of filling material (goose down (GD), duck down (DD), Thinsulate700 (T700), Thinsulate600 (T600) and Polyester (PET)), and the changes in thermal insulation were examined by measuring the microclimate in the case of an environmental change from a high temperature to a low temperature. In addition, the clumping of filling material and the changes in the thickness/weight depending on the laundry process were observed, and the relationships with the thermal insulation were analyzed.

The results showed that for natural filling materials (GD and DD), the thermal insulation deteriorated significantly due to changes in the thickness/weight after laundering ten times, and water washing was more appropriate than the dry cleaning. On the other hand, the artificial filling materials (T700, T600 and PET) showed a relatively smaller difference, except for clumping, when they went through more dry cleaning or water washing cycles compared to the natural filling materials.

The results showed that the laundry methods have different effects on the damage to the filling material, the change in thermal insulation, and the change in the comfort-related physical property. Therefore, it is important to select the optimal laundry method depending on the filling material.

The purpose of this investigation was to measure the changes in effective thermal insulation caused by three different types of outer garment ventilation features (chest zips, back zips and pit zips) when combined with either a high or low air permeability insulating layer.

The measurements in this investigation were made with a thermal manikin and with a 26 zone thermal torso. Measurements were made at two air flow speeds with each manikin; the different air flow characteristics for each manikin allowed investigation of how ventilation features interact with different air flow distributions.

It was established in this study that high permeability insulation increases the efficacy of ventilation features by an average of 7 per cent at the low wind speed and 10 per cent at the high wind speed. No particular ventilation feature was found to be consistently the most effective; the data suggest that garment openings should simply be located in well-ventilated areas.

This investigation analysed the ventilation characteristics of protective clothing ensembles with different ventilation features, allowing designers to create more comfortable clothing for work and leisure activities.

The purpose of this paper is to modify light hollow polymer microsphere (LHPM) with titanium dioxide nanoparticles (nano-TiO2) to improve its compatibility with latex and apply the obtained nano-TiO2/LHPM composite particles in external wall thermal insulation coatings.

The nano-TiO2/LHPM composite particles were prepared via vigorous stirring. The morphology and chemical composition of the produced nano-TiO2/LHPM composite particles were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersion spectrum, thermo-gravimetric analyzer and Fourier transform infrared. The performance of this new composite coating was evaluated by checking its stability, density, radiation reflectivity, thermal conductivity and the resulting insulation temperature difference when forming coating film.

It was found that a 9:1 mass ratio of nano-TiO2/LHPM with total 10 weight per cent composite particles in the thermal insulation paint showed low density, good stability, low thermal conductivity (0.1687 W/m·K) and high insulation temperature difference (5.8°C).

The LHPM can be modified by other nanoparticles to improve its insulation performance in thermal insulation coatings.

This work provides a simple, robust, but effective approach to produce new thermal insulation coatings with nano-TiO2/LHPM composite particles.

This method for surface modification of LHPMs is novel and the modified hollow polymer microspheres could be applied to external wall insulation coatings.

The purpose of this paper is to deal with performance verification of thermal insulation fillings that are used for outer clothes into cold environments. Thermal properties of filling materials (down and three sophisticated fillings) were tested under condition approaching real weather conditions in Middle Europe.

In the paper, modern method of thermal resistance Rct measurement, by Sweating Guarded-Hotplate system, was compared with method of Technical University of Liberec (TUL method). The TUL method shows good results and it is applicable even at ambient temperatures below zero, which fully corresponds to real application of the insulation filling.

Evaluation of fibre battings were carried out even at temperatures below the freezing point, which is important for simulation of actual application of these filling structures. The highest thermal resistance of goose down confirm that natural materials have their irreplaceable position, especially in application into clothes for extreme conditions.

There does not include effect of the humidity change on thermal insulation properties. It will be subject of further research of authors.

The investigation of thermal insulation properties were carried out under conditions approaching real application of tested materials, namely, at low ambient temperature.