Designing Textile Architectures for High Energy-Efficiency Human Body Sweat- and Cooling-Management

Kun Fu; Zhi Yang; Yong Pei; Yongxin Wang; Beibei Xu; YuHuang Wang; Bao Yang; Liangbing Hu

doi:10.1007/s42765-019-0003-y

Advanced Fiber Materials ›› 2019, Vol. 1 ›› Issue (1) :61 -70. DOI: 10.1007/s42765-019-0003-y

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Designing Textile Architectures for High Energy-Efficiency Human Body Sweat- and Cooling-Management

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¹Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, 20742, College Park, MD, USA

²Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Delaware, 19716, Newark, DE, USA

³Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, 20742, College Park, MD, USA

⁴Department of Chemistry, University of Maryland, 20742, College Park, MD, USA

^h binghu@umd.edu

Kun Fu

is currently an assistant professor in mechanical engineering at University and Delaware (UD), and he is also affiliated to the Center for Composite Materials at UD. Fu received his PhD from Fiber and Polymer Science under supervision of Prof. Xiangwu Zhang at North Carolina State University, then he worked as a postdoctoral associate and assistant research scientist at University of Maryland, College Park and Maryland Energy Innovation Institute, under the supervision of Prof. Liangbing Hu. Fu’s current research is focusing on high-performance fiber and composite materials and advanced 3D and 4D materials printing. Details of Fu’s research can be found at www.kfu-group.com.

Liangbing Hu

is a Professor at University of Maryland College Park. His research interests include nanomaterials and nanostructures, roll-to-roll nanomanufacturing, energy storage focusing on solid-state batteries and Na ion batteries, and printed electronics. He has published over 300 research papers (including Science and Nature in 2018). Dr. Hu is the (founding) director of the Center for Advanced Center for Advanced Renewable Biomaterials (CARB) at the University of Maryland College Park (www.carb.umd.edu). He is also the Co-Founder of Inventwood LLC. (www.inventwood.com).

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Abstract

Thermal management of textiles requires local microclimate control over heat and wet dissipation to create a comfortable thermal-wet environment at the interface of the human body and clothing. Herein, we design a fabric capable of both sweat- and cooling-management using a knitted fabric featuring a bilayer structure consisting of hydrophobic polyethylene terephthalate and hydrophilic cellulose fibers to simultaneously achieve high infrared (IR) transmittance and good thermal-wet comfort. The IR transmission of this cooling textile increased by ~ twofold in the dry state and ~ eightfold in the wet state compared to conventional cotton fabric. When the porosity changes from 10 to 47% with the comparison of conventional cotton fabric and our cooling textile, the heat flux is increased from 74.4 to 152.3 W/cm². The cooling effect of the cooling fabric is 105% greater than that of commercial cotton fabric, which displays a better thermal management capacity for personal cooling. This bilayer design controls fast moisture transfer from inside out and provides thermal management, demonstrating high impact not only for garments, but also for other systems requiring heat regulation, such as buildings, which could mitigate energy demand and ultimately contribute to the relief of global energy and climate issues.

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Kun Fu, Zhi Yang, Yong Pei, Yongxin Wang, Beibei Xu, YuHuang Wang, Bao Yang, Liangbing Hu. Designing Textile Architectures for High Energy-Efficiency Human Body Sweat- and Cooling-Management. Advanced Fiber Materials, 2019, 1(1): 61-70 DOI:10.1007/s42765-019-0003-y