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Graduated compression is widely used for medical application to prevent perioperative venous thromboembolism, but other applications such as sportswear can potentially also benefit from it. A tight-fit cycling shirt meant to ensure the correct position during cycling and prevent injuries was designed. The aim of this study was to improve garment pattern design from the aspect of clothing pressure for providing support and enhancing comfort to the user. This paper investigates the suitability of pressure maps from 3D fashion design software CLO 3D for design and in particular its capability to discriminate between various materials and cycling postures. Moreover, the impact of the mechanical properties of fabric was analyzed. In particular, virtual prototyping tool CLO 3D and pressure mapping were employed to achieve the required graduated compression while ensuring fit and comfort. Pattern adjustments were iteratively performed until stress, strain, and pressure maps showed adequate fit and pressure of the cycling garment on the virtual cyclist in static and dynamic cycling positions. The impact of fabric types on garment fit has been shown by generating the stress, strain, and pressure maps with a virtual simulation. It was found that the visualized pressure on the human body model shows distributions that are related to contact between body and garment, and large compression stresses occur in the lower parts of the two shirts. Evident garment deformation was shown at hip level, upper arm, lower front side seam, and front neck, which can reduce garment wear comfort and freedom of movement. The output was found to be sufficiently accurate to optimize the garments based on material and cycling posture.

There is an increasing interest in long-term electrocardiography (ECG) monitoring in veterinary clinical practice. ECG is the most essential physiological signal in diagnosing and managing heart diseases both in humans and animals. Electrodes are the main components that affect the quality of the acquired signal. This study focuses on the development of silver-coated textile electrodes for veterinary ECG testing (particularly for dogs). Silver printed polyester, embroidered, and silver-plated conductive hook textile electrodes were used for ECG measurement in dogs. This is an important validation for the use of textile ECG sensors in combination with hairy skin. ECG signals were collected while the animal was in a static position and walking on a smooth surface. The ECG signals collected from the dog using the silver printed polyester and embroidered textile electrodes with slight skin preparation have identifiable P, QRS, and T waveforms and were comparable with signals from standard silver/silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) electrodes. Results revealed that these textile electrodes can be used for ECG monitoring in a dog to avoid associated problems with commercially used crocodile clamps and standard Ag/AgCl electrodes. The hook electrodes show promising results when placed on the hairy regions of a dog without any skin preparation.

Protective and sport clothing is governed by protection requirements, performance, and comfort of the user. The comfort and impact performance of protective and sport clothing are typically subjectively measured, and this is a multifactorial and dynamic process. The aim of this review paper is to review the contemporary methodologies and approaches for measuring ergonomic wear comfort, including objective and subjective techniques. Special emphasis is given to the discussion of different methods, such as objective techniques, subjective techniques, and a combination of techniques, as well as a new biomechanical approach called modeling of skin. Literature indicates that there are four main techniques to measure wear comfort: subjective evaluation, objective measurements, a combination of subjective and objective techniques, and computer modeling of human–textile interaction. In objective measurement methods, the repeatability of results is excellent, and quantified results are obtained, but in some cases, such quantified results are quite different from the real perception of human comfort. Studies indicate that subjective analysis of comfort is less reliable than objective analysis because human subjects vary among themselves. Therefore, it can be concluded that a combination of objective and subjective measuring techniques could be the valid approach to model the comfort of textile materials.

Electroencephalogram (EEG) is the biopotential recording of electrical signals generated by brain activity. It is useful for monitoring sleep quality and alertness, clinical applications, diagnosis, and treatment of patients with epilepsy, disease of Parkinson and other neurological disorders, as well as continuous monitoring of tiredness/alertness in the field. We provide a review of textile-based EEG. Most of the developed textile-based EEGs remain on shelves only as published research results due to a limitation of flexibility, stickability, and washability, although the respective authors of the works reported that signals were obtained comparable to standard EEG. In addition, nearly all published works were not quantitatively compared and contrasted with conventional wet electrodes to prove feasibility for the actual application. This scenario would probably continue to give a publication credit, but does not add to the growth of the specific field, unless otherwise new integration approaches and new conductive polymer composites are evolved to make the application of textile-based EEG happen for bio-potential monitoring.

This paper presents the experimental and numerical analysis of the potential of a braided fabric for flexor tendon repair. Numerical models of tubular braided fabrics were generated using a python script interface and imported into ABAQUS® while Flexor tendon models were represented as silicone rubber rods. Experimental tests and Finite Element Modelling (FEM) of the flexor tendon repair was undertaken by deploying two tendon ends from opposite sides of a tubular braided fabric. This was done such that the tendon ends meet at the midpoint within the fabric. The tendons were tightly held to emulate a realistic repaired tendon. A displacement driven uniaxial loading was induced on the tendon-fabric assembly sufficient to cause a 2mm gap between the tendon ends. Numerical analysis of the repair potential of a braided fabric in tendon repair was done by analyzing selected fabric parameters that were crucial in tendon repair applications. The results show that changing the parameters of the braided fabrics significantly affected the potential of the fabrics during tendon repair.

Fabric Touch Tester (FTT) is a relatively new device from SDL Atlas to determine touch properties of fabrics. It simultaneously measures 13 touch-related fabric physical properties in four modules that include bending and thickness measurements. This study aims to comparatively analyze the thickness and bending measurements made by the FTT and the common standard methods used in the textile industry. The results obtained with the FTT for 11 different fabrics were compared with that of standard methods. Despite the different measurement principle, a good correlation was found between the two methods used for the assessment of thickness and bending. As FTT is a new tool for textile comfort measurement and no standard yet exists, these findings are essential to determine the reliability of the measurements and how they relate to the well-established standard methods.