Abstract
In order to determine the effect of air temperature on the touch sensation for underwear fabrics, ten different types of underwear fabrics (five for summer-use and another five for winter-use) were evaluated based on the touch sensation in wearing condition by the semantic differential evaluation method at the air temperature of 22°C, 28°C and 34°C. The subjects involved in this experiment consisted of sixteen young women. The results obtained were as follow: 1) Fabrics for summer-use were dry, light and loose in touch sensation, while fabrics for winter-use were fairly supple, smooth and comfortable; 2) The investigation on the effect of air temperature on touch sensations has shown that, for both summer- and winter-use fabrics, significant differences were recognized in all touch sensations, especially cool and cold sensation among air temperature levels. The fabrics for summer-use were fairly preferred at 34°C than at 22°C while the fabrics for winter-use were fairly preferred at 22°C than 34°C. These facts may be drawn from the body temperature regulation and the change in skin temperature, in particular the sweat rate on the breast and back in trunk with air temperature change; 3) The results of factor analysis have shown that the touch sensation of the wear consisted of factors expressing comfort, suppleness and smoothness as the first factor, and cold and cool feeling as well as light and dry feeling as the second and subsequent factors. On the basis of the scatter diagram of the first and second factor loadings and the difference of mean values of the first, second and fourth factors, it was confirmed that the touch sensation of the wear was evidently affected by the air temperature.
