Replica clothing as worn by Robert F. Scott and Roald Amundsen in their race to be the first on the South Pole and by George Mallory in his ascent of Everest was tested for thermal insulative properties. These were benchmarked against modern day explorer clothing. Results are discussed in terms of insulation, insulation per weight, and wind protection. Further the effects of clothing on energy consumption were considered as well as the effect of altitude on insulation and energy consumption. The biggest advantage of modern clothing seems to be its lower weight. Scott's clothing resulted in extra energy usage for the wearers and provided less insulation than Amundsen's, though sufficient while active. The Mallory clothing had a low energy requirement due to the incorporation of ‘slippery’ silk layers. Its insulation would have been sufficient down to -30 °C in low wind. If wind were to increase, the clothing would however not have provided the required insulation.

Glass-fiber fabric composites are widely used in various applications. Its usage is largely determined by the bending behaviour of fabric composites in through-thickness direction. In this work we have selected three types of quasi three spacer fabric made of glass fibres to analyze their structure and conduct bending experiments. The surface morphology in up, back and side views, as well as weaving/knitting structure were also observed. It exhibited that there existed much static atmosphere within fabric composite for a high porous structure. Moreover, the three-points bending properties were also measured by Instron tester. The bending load and deflection curve of fabric composite were obtained. The Typical Bending Stress and Strain Curves were calculated and studied for biaxial spacer weft-knitted fabric (named as sample #1), tuck stitch spacer warp-knitted fabric (sample #2) and spacer woven fabric composite (sample #3). The testing results show that sample #1 had the highest indexes in bending stiffness, maximum bending stress and maximum bending load, followed by Samples #2 and #3. This can be attributed to the yarn's orientation in fabric composite, i.e., the yarn's crimp shape in thickness direction.

In this work, nylon 6 was firstly dissolved in 98% formic acid with the concentration of 13wt%, and then electrospun to obtain nanofibrous membranes. The morphology of the electrospun nylon 6 nanofibrous membranes was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the filtration efficiency and the mechanical properties were also examined. The results show that the average diameter of electrospun nylon 6 fiber was 217 nm, the surface average pore diameter was 234 nm, the thickness was 31 to 60

New bisphenol monomers, (4-fluoro)phenylhydroquinone and (3,4-bifluoro) phenylhydroquinone, were prepared in a two-step synthesis. Poly(aryl ether ketone)s were derived from these bisphenols via a nucleophilic aromatic substitution polycondensation with 4,4'-Difluorobenzophenone. The polycondensation proceeded quantitatively in N,N-dimethyl acetamide (DMAc) in the presence of anhydrous potassium carbonate and afforded the polymers with inherent viscosities of 0.50 and 0.92 dL/g. The glass transition temperatures were 151°C and 159°C respectively. The polymers also had high thermal decomposition temperatures and the temperatures of 5% weight loss were all above 527°C and the 10% weight loss were above 587°C in nitrogen atmosphere. There were no melting endotherms that were observed on DSC traces, which indicated that the copolymers were amorphous and the amorphous structures were further confirmed by wide-angle X-ray diffraction. The polymers' solubility was improved by the introduction of bulky pendant groups and all of them exhibited good solubility in some common solvents such as NMP, DMF, DMSO, CH2Cl2, THF, CHCl3 etc. Transparent, strong and flexible films were formed by the DMAc solutions of the polymers with tensile strengths of 98.3 MPa, 95.2 MPa, Young's moduli of 2.74 GPa, 3.06GPa and elongation at break of 27%and 32%. The dielectric constants at 1 MHz of the polymers were 2.82 and 2.75.

In this work, Modal fibers were dyed in supercritical carbon dioxide using C.I.Disperse Yellow 54, and dying process was investigated and optimized. The key parameters including dye dosage, temperature, pressure and time of dyeing process were discussed both theoretically and experimentally. The degree of crystallinity and strength of the fibers were affected by fiber modification and dyeing. The final results obtained from this experiment indicated that only 20min was required to reach the equilibrium condition in supercritical carbon dioxide, and the dye yield increased with the increase in temperature. The dye-uptake increased along with the increase of pressure, however when the pressure was extended up to 18Mpa, the dye-uptake decreased slowly. The optimized conditions include winding of fibers around dyeing axis with the combination of different CO_2 inlets, dyeing temperature at 100°C, pressure at 18MPa and time 20min.

Based on performance analysis of clothing exposed to electromagnetic radiation, a electromagnetic model for abdominal cavity of human body is established using electromagnetic simulation software (Ansoft HFSS). This can be applied to simulate the specific absorption rate (SAR) of the abdominal cavity under irradiation of electromagnetic waves. The SAR of the abdominal cavity with or without protective clothing and with different clothing has been compared. The differences in electromagnetic protective performance between clothing made of these materials are also discussed. The results show that the SAR of the abdominal cavity is larger when the radiation source frequency increases over a range of 300MHz to 900MHz .While at the same frequency of radiation sources, the protective performance of different clothing materials is related to their electrical characteristic parameters and protection patterns. Also simply using the shielding effectiveness (SE) of clothing materials to illustrate the protective performance of clothing is relatively unilateral. Visualization of the electromagnetic protective performance of clothing can be preliminary achieved. The results of this research can also be applied to improve the electromagnetic protective performance of clothing in the process of design and manufacture to ensure health and safety of the people.

Roll drafting is the key part of yarn manufacturing in ring spinning. Because of the fibre length distribution and the accelerated points of fibres in the drafting zone, the drafted strand usually tends to become uneven in terms of its linear density. The reported study mostly focuses on the accelerated points of fibre ends in the drafting zone, and also tries to find out the relation of the changing accelerated points and the irregularity of the drafted yarn. This approach investigates the role of the accelerated points, giving a parabolic-type probabilistic density function to fit the accelerated points of the floating fibres. Therefore, the stochastic simulation of the fibres in the drafting zone is conducted. The simulation process starts from a random fiber bundle nipped by the back roller, and then generates the accelerated point of each fibre by Mont Carlo method. For the given gauge distance and drafting ratio, any strand with a certain fibre length distribution can be simulated in the drafting system. The simulated curve of the number of fibres in the profile of the strand is given with different drafting parameters, which describes the attenuation of the strand in drafting. The results will help us to understand the drafting process and give a method of predicting yarn irregularity from fibre length distribution and drafting parameters.

High performance fibers such as polymer material, have extensive applications in aerospace and high temperature environment. When these fibers were used in such high temperature, could be subjected to degradation. To understand and evaluate the thermal degradation process of materials under thermal environment, effective characterization and research methods must be adopted. In this paper, the thermal degradation processes of aramid fibers were analysed by TGA-DTA/FT-IR. The experimental results show that aramid fibers (Kevlar 49, Nomex) have similar thermal stability, but their thermal degradation process and temperatures are different. Kevlar 49 fiber shows higher degradation temperature as a copolymer of para-aramid, and its initial degradation temperature is 548.1°C in air. It can also be found that the Nomex fiber has a lower thermal degradation temperature and its initial degradation temperature is 423.7°C in air. Ascending the temperature to 800°C, the two kinds of fibers loose all mass in air. We can get the wave number, absorbance time and three-dimensional images during the heating process by TGA-DTA/FT-IR tests. According to TG curves, the infrared spectra of decomposition products can be obtained and analyzed. The thermal decomposition process can be comprehensively discussed by the infrared spectra of decomposition products.

Overfeed is referred to two pieces of fabrics of different lengths being joined together with a thread by sewing processing. In overfeed sewing, the differences in mechanical properties of fabrics are vital factors contributing to the shrinkage of the finished fabric. Based on theory of material mechanics, the relationship model between overfeed sewing shrinkage and mechanical properties including bending modulus of the long fabric, stretch coefficient of the short fabric and the overfeeding quantity was established in this paper, and experiments were carried out to verify the relationship model. The obtained results indicated a good linear correlation between the calculated values of the model and the actual tested values. This model can provide a new method for predicting overfeed sewing shrinkage of wool-type fabric.

Silk hydrogel has been utilized to deliver drug and growth factor and replace tissue. Therefore, exploring the structural changes of silk fibroin for variety of applications has attracted public concern. It has been reported that gel transition is influenced by temperature, pH, and shearing force. In this paper, we have studied the effect of shearing force that influences silk fibroin structural transitions. After stirring the silk fibroin solution at various shearing rates, the gelation time was observed. To investigate the effect of shearing force during the process, the molecular conformation of gel was investigated by CD, XRD, FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy. It was found that shearing force accelerated the gel rate, and with the increase of rate, gelation time decreased. The rate of 150r/min was more effective to promote gelation. β-sheet structure was formed by the shearing force, which was observed by X-ray diffraction. The crystallinity was increased effectively. After being lyophilized, the sample exhibited network and sponge-like structures. Remarkable changes in porosity were observed after using different shearing rates. It was observed that the higher the shearing rate, the lesser the pores formed.