This paper aims to make a comprehensive review of measurement methods developed for evaluating fabric and garment drape. Drapemeters used for evaluating drapeability since Pierce's bending length tester are reviewed. Parameters proposed for measuring drapeability are also considered. The authors propose that using flat fabric methods does not accurately reflect the drape of fabrics when worn. The paper is a pre-cursor to a new image analysis technique which will be reported in Part 2.

The moisture transmission behaviour of clothing plays an important role in determining its thermo- physiological comfort. The determination of the factors involved in moisture transmission of clothing and its prediction have become a main concern for researchers for many years. An attempt has been made to review the research studies on modeling and simulation of moisture transmission through fibrous assemblies. The review work has been divided in two parts. The first part deals with moisture vapour transmission and the second with liquid water transmission through fibrous materials. The various processes involved in water vapour transmission through fibrous materials are diffusion, absorption - desorption, convection, evaporation and condensation. The models on water vapour transmission through fibrous materials are based on the mass balance equation. Some of the studies involving theoretical work on vapour transmission have been conducted on individual processes. Others consider the inter-related effects involved. Moisture vapour transmission through textile materials is coupled with heat transfer phenomena, due to its hygroscopic nature. The atmospheric conditions, the structure of the fibrous materials and the hygroscopic nature of the fibres significantly influence the processes. Amongst the available models on vapour transmission, the model developed by Li and Zhu predicts simultaneous heat and moisture transfer considering moisture sorption, condensation and capillary liquid diffusion in porous textiles and this model is best suited for determining textile clothing comfort.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the different heel heights of women's shoes influence walking according to walking analysis findings. Identifying heel heights that do not impair walking comfort were also investigated. Ten female university students were chosen as subjects and asked to wear sample pumps with heel heights of 1.5, 3.5, 5.5, and 8.5 cm. The walking experiments focused on walking movements, muscular activities of the lower limbs, and ground reaction at the point of impact. A questionnaire was then used to determine comfort levels while walking. The analysis discovered that the height of the heel was positively correlated with vertical movement, and that the subsequent change in walking movements resulted in an increase in muscular activities and ground reaction, and a corresponding increase walking discomfort. It was also found that poor ratings were given for each measurement item when a heel height of 8.5 cm was used, leading us to conclude that comfort during walking is compromised when the heel height increases beyond 6 cm.

A series of novel sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES) were prepared by aromatic nucleophilic substitution polycondensation from 4, 4'-dichlorodiphenylsulfone (DCDPS), 3, 3'-disulfonated-4, 4'- dichlorodiphenylsulfone (SDCDPS) and 4-fluorophenyl hydroquinone and characterized by viscosity measurement, FT-IR, ^1H-NMR and TG. The SPAES membranes consisting of different ratio of SDCDPS to DCDPS were cast from their solutions. The alternating current (AC) proton conductivity of SPAES membranes were carried on. The values of inherent viscosity ranging from 1.04 to 2.43 dl/g, implying that SPAESs possessed high molecular weight. The results of TG analysis showed SPAESs were thermal stable up to nearly 200 °C. The acid forms (H^+) of SPAES films were tough and ductile with the tensile strength of 61-91 Mpa. The proton conductivity of SPAES films became higher with the increasing content of SDCDPS in chain composition. SPAES with 50% SDCDPS showed the highest proton conductivity of 0.205 S/cm at 80 °C. The water uptake and dimension swelling of SPAES membranes were also measured. At the same time, SPAES showed excellent proton transportation stability when used at high temperature. SPAESs had a higher water uptake than Nafion 115, while experimental IEC of SPAESs in the range of 0.77-1.35 meq/g at 80 °C were very closed to the calculated ones.

Instrumental methods for assessing colour fastness of textile products have been standardized by organizations such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS). In addition to these, a few methods have been proposed. Despite the existence of these methods, fastness assessments are still being carried out in many places through visual inspection. In a laboratory, experienced inspectors share a common understanding about degree of fastness; however, there are variations between laboratories across different countries and between experienced workers and trainees. Therefore, in order to encourage the use of the instrumental method, four methods were re- evaluated. In the experiment, a set of fabric samples were instrumentally evaluated using four different methods and the samples were also visually assessed by professional inspectors in a textile testing centre in Japan. Then, the results of the instrumental methods were evaluated by comparing with the visual results. A method proposed by Gui and Luo et al was considered to be the best model in terms of the agreement with the visual results and also this method was less influenced by the difference of colour measurement methods.

Microporous polyurethane (PU) nano-microfibrous membranes exhibiting robust mechanical property with high air permeability were prepared using one-step electrospinning method. The role of compositions of electrospinning solution on the morphology, hydrophobicity and mechanical property of PU membranes were discussed, and a probable two-step break mechanism upon the external stress is proposed. Furthermore, the as-prepared membranes exhibited good air permeability (5.9 mm/s), high water resistance (5.7 kPa), and water vapor transmittance (7868 g/m², 24 h), and comparable tensile strength (15.95 MPa), suggesting their use as promising materials for various potential applications in protective clothing, membrane distillation, bioseparation, tissue engineering and catalyst carriers, etc.

The main aim is evaluation of illumination intensity for side emitting plastic optical fibres in dependence on the distance from light source. The special device for measurement of light intensity on surface and cross section at various distances from light source is described. The dependence of surface and cross section light intensity on the distance from light source is expressed by the exponential type model with two parameters; it is illumination intensity in the input into fibre and fibre attenuation factor. For textile structures with optical fibres the illumination intensity is evaluated as well. It was found that illumination intensity of textile structures is very different. It is dependent on the trajectory of optical fibre in textile structure. The highest illumination intensity is for straight fibre in textile with lower waviness.

The purpose of this study was to measure temperatures of cotton and polyester woven fabrics in wetting and drying process by thermocouples placed on them. It also discussed temperature distribution caused by diffusion and evaporation at different relative humidity. The measurement points of thermocouples were located at two concentric circles with radius of 3 cm and 6 cm. The temperatures were measured by covering the same fabric when a droplet of water dropped on the center of circle at 20%RH, 65%RH and 80%RH environmental moistures, respectively. The results showed that because of diffusion determined by distance, it was different of temperature changes of every point. As the center of circle, at different humidity, temperatures when reached dynamic heat balance were different. The drying process of cotton showed consistency with temperature recovery. At 20%RH, it is the shortest for temperature returning to environmental temperature because of diffusion speed caused by steam content of environment. It can be applied to performance assessment for fabrics that liquid water absorbing function is required. It also can be used for evaluation of discomfort of wet fabrics by temperature decline with the wetting.

The mechanical interaction between the human body and foundation wear, which consists of normal load (pressure) and tangential load (shear), has a complicated influence on human physiological activities. In this study, five female subjects were asked to lay supine still, pressure loads of 20 mmHg and 40 mmHg and two levels of shear loads were exerted on the shank respectively, and the blood flow of skin undergoing loading was measured by using Advance Laser Blood Flowmeter. The results obtained were as follows: the low pressure could promote the skin blood flow; the shear load was effective in reducing the skin blood flow; little shear added to the pressure had important role on reducing the skin blood flow.

In this work, various loads of nanomaterials and aliphatic dendritic polymerswere mixed with fibre grade PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) to study its dye ability, thermal and thermal-mechanical properties. A twin screw extruder equipped with sheet (profile) die was used for mixing the compounds. Thermal behaviour of the neat PET and the compounded sheet samples were studied using differential scanning calorimeter and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis. It was observed that the T_g of samples decreased gradually by increasing the load of Boltorn H40 as a nanomaterial additive while the T_m remained almost the same. The difference between the glass transition temperature for neat PET and the compounded sample including 3% additive was about seven degrees. In spite of the decline in T_g, the moduli of samples containing additive increased as revealed by DMTA analysis. The presence of this dendritic polymer in compounded PET acted as a cross linking or antiplastisizing agent and made the fibre grade PET compounds more compact than pure PET. So the disperse dye molecules neither were able to stay between the molecules of compounded PET nor were able to trap between the dendritic branches.