Effect of Raw Materials and Loop Length on Thermal Comfort Properties of Pique Fleece Fabrics

Technological developments of knitting machines made it possible to produce evolved fabric structures to obtain various properties that suit consumer needs. Pique fleece is a variation of the special popular fleece knitted structure with aim of combining the features of pique and fleece structures. The aim of this research was to study the effect of yarns material type and loop length on thermal comfort properties of un-napped pique fleece fabrics that used as apparel textiles during transitional seasons. Two types of fleece yarn (100% cotton and 65% cotton/ 35%polyester) and three types of face and binding yarns (cotton, polyester and viscose) were used to produce fabric samples at three levels of loop length. Results showed that in case of 100% cotton fleece yarn, samples produced from polyester face and binding yarns achieved the highest air permeability, while the highest thermal conductivity was achieved by using cotton face and binding yarns and the highest thermal absorptivity was achieved by using viscose face and binding yarns. Besides, using 65% cotton/ 35%polyester fleece yarn led to noticeable improvement of air permeability, and slight increase in water vapor permeability of samples produced by viscose face and binding yarns. Results showed that thermal conductivity, resistance and absorptivity decrease as loop length increases. Based on the overall desirability index and thermal comfort index it was found that, using 65% cotton/ 35%polyester fleece yarn and viscose face and binding yarns at the higher level of loop length (2.8mm) is the best combination to optimize thermal comfort properties.