Simultaneous-integrated evaluation of mechanical–thermal sensory attributes of woven fabrics in considering practical wearing states

Tactile sensations of fabrics are the primary property determining the wearing comfort of clothing; however, comprehensive evaluation of the fabric tactile property by considering the flexural buckling of fabrics under high curvature, hysteresis performance and thermal property has not been fully studied, leading to a clear gap between the existing measurement methods and application requirements. Herein, a simultaneous-integrated testing method, namely the Touch Sensation Tester for Fabrics (TST-F) was introduced to evaluate the mechanical–thermal sensory properties of woven fabrics. The introduced instrument used one device with a single mechanical sensor to test various mechanical properties by constructing different deformations of fabrics, and the thermal property was simultaneously measured using an infrared detector array, achieving an efficient characterization of the mechanical–thermal sensation properties of textiles. The measurement capacity and repeatability of the TST-F were statistically analyzed; the measurement indices and their relation with fabric mechanical–thermal sensation properties were also exhibited. Results showed that the TST-F was promising to characterize fabric touch sensations in terms of bending stiffness, compression softness with wrinkling, stretching tightness and thermal comfort by considering the infrared transmission and heat conductivity of textiles.