16th World Textile Conference AUTEX 2016
8–10 June 2016, Ljubljana, Slovenia
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A SIMULATION-BASED ENGINEERING APPLICATION FOR
THERMAL CLOTHING DESIGN
Benjamin Van Der Smissen1, Simona Vasile2, Joris Cools2, Alexandra De Raeve2,
Mathias Vermeulen1, Peter Van Ransbeeck1
1University
2University
College Ghent, Faculty of Science and Nature, Mechatronics, Belgium
College Ghent, Science and Nature, Fashion, Textile and Wood Technology, Belgium
peter.vanransbeeck@hogent.be
Introduction
Design and production in apparel industry need cost-effective and user-friendly thermal
comfort design software. The design tools should model all thermal functions that are
depending on the complex interactive physical behaviours involved in the clothing wearing
system, which consists of (1) the human body, (2) the clothing and (3) the external
environment. The related physical behaviours may include the thermal interactions among
the human body, clothing and external environment, the biological thermoregulation of
human body and the heat and moisture transfer processes in textile and air layers. On the
other hand, the clothing is practically designed and made with textile materials and various
technologies/functional treatments. With the development of Computational Fluid
Dynamics (CFD), it should be possible to simulate and predict the thermal and moisture
properties in the complete clothing wearing system including the microclimate flows (Mao et
al. 2011; Van Ransbeeck et al. 2014). However few researchers have examined the thermal
mechanisms in complete clothed wearing systems including air gaps, using simulation
methods (Mao et al. 2011). The complex determination of the air layers using 3D body
scanning is recently investigated (Mert et al. 2015).
Methods and materials
In this paper the development of a simulation application or app for the engineering
design of thermal quality clothing has been started. The software architecture is
developed for different design strategies. Specific design requirements lead to different
simulation models for the clothing wearing system ranging from simple 1D, 2D to complex
time-consuming 3D models. The simulation app uses finite element method (FEM) for
solving the mathematical equations that describe the thermal behaviours involved in the
system consisting of the human body, clothing and environment.
The thermal behaviours that have been modelled are: (1) heat and moisture transfer
behaviours in fibres, fabrics and garments, as well as their interactions and the influence
from phase change process (condensation/evaporation, moisture absorption/desorption
and micro-encapsulated phase change materials) and various functional treatments; (2)
thermoregulatory behaviours of the human body responding to the clothing and external
environments; and (3) interactions between the boundaries of clothing, human body and
environment. These thermal behaviours of clothing wearing system actually are in different
scales ranging from the human body scale (m) to the fabric (mm), fi
scale (nm).
In the 1D model, the human body is represented as a cylinder with integrated
thermoregulation model and surrounded by different textile and air layers. With this model a
quick cost-effective multilayer design can be performed for global thermo-physiological
comfort. Variation in wearing protocol, clothing design (layers, fabrics and fibres) combined
with coatings, phase changing materials and self-heating materials can be investigated for
different climatic conditions.
Within the 2D approach the human body is divided in different parts (cylinders) with each
there own clothing design, leading to a tool where the local comfort for each part can be
investigated including changes in the clothing style.
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16th World Textile Conference AUTEX 2016
8–10 June 2016, Ljubljana, Slovenia
_________________________________________________________________________________
Ultimately in the 3D strategy a 3D FEM model of the human body will be used, where each
surface element of the body is coupled with the integrated thermoregulation model and
clothing design. The local comfort can be analysed in detail for different clothing design for
each surface element.
The application is available using a web server and can be used on different operating
systems, where the simulation can be sent to different PC’s, clusters and clouds.
Results – Discussion - Conclusion
The development of a simulation app for thermal clothing design has been started
considering a 1D design strategy. Successful validation with experimental results (Gibson &
Charmchi 1997) will be reported. The app will be demonstrated and first promising results for
a specific design case will be presented.
Keywords: simulation app thermal clothing design
References
Mao, A; Luo, J.; Li, Y; Xiaonan, L & Wang, R. 2011 A multi-disciplinary strategy for
computer-aided clothing thermal engineering design, Computer-Aided Design 43, 1854–
1869.
Van Ransbeeck, P., De Raeve, A., Benoot, R., Cools, J., Van Der Smissen, B., Vermeulen,
M., Cools, J., Vasile, S. and Vermeulen M. 2014 Towards Virtual Engineering of
Protective Clothing Comfort, 6th European Conference on Protective Clothing, 14-16 May
2014, Bruges, Belgium.
Mert, E., Böhnisch, S. ,Psikuta, A., Bueno M.A., Rossi, R.M. 2015 Determination of the Air
Gap Thickness underneath the Garment for Lower Body Using 3D Body Scanning, 6th
International Conference on 3D Body Scanning Technologies, Lugano, Switzerland, 27-28
October 2015.
Gibson, P.,Charmchi, M.1997 The Use of Volume-Averaging Techniques to Predict
Temperature Transients Due to Water Vapor Sorption in Hygroscopic Porous Polymer
Materials, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 64, 493-505.
Corresponding author:
Benjamin VAN DER SMISSEN
University College Ghent, Faculty of Science and Nature, Department of Mechatronics
Valentin Vaerwyckweg 1, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Phone: +32 479262971
Fax: E-mail: benjamin.vandersmissen@hogent.be
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Options indication
1.Oral.
2.Textile and Clothing Design.
2