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Abstract: Many textile surfaces are characterised by emergent fibres, i.e. superficial hairiness. It is well known that hairiness plays an important role for the frictional and tactile properties of fabrics. In the present paper, we describe a brush model to predict the friction of hairy fabrics. The new model is based on the assumption that the deformation of superficial hairs during friction is equivalent to the deformation of the hairy textile structure during surface indentation or compression. The force required to compress a given number of hairs per surface unit can be measured by indentation experiments and used to predict the force required to lay down hairs during dynamic friction. Three cases of hairiness deformation are analysed: purely plastic, purely elastic and visco-elastic. For four different textile fabrics, the theoretical calculations based on visco-elastic material behaviour showed fairly good agreement with the experimental results. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Sports activities may cause different types of injuries induced by friction between the skin and sport textiles. Focusing on runners who are often bothered with blisters, we studied the textile–foot skin interface in order to measure and predict friction. We first determined the characteristics of mechanical contacts between foot, sock and shoe during running. On this basis, we developed a reciprocating linear tribometer to simulate friction contacts between skin and sport socks. Two different types of cotton socks were studied (basic jersey and terry jersey). To predict the friction of terry jersey socks, we developed a model which takes into account basic textile parameters and assumes that dynamic friction primarily results from the movement of terries (rotation of loops). For the investigated cases, a good correspondence was found between calculated and measured friction forces. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The properties of human skin strongly depend on hydration. Skin friction, elasticity and roughness change significantly in the presence of water. This paper presents a new bio-mimicking gelatine-based physical skin model that simulates the frictional behaviour of human skin against a widely-used standard textile under dry and wet conditions and over a broad range of applied normal load (0.5–5 N) and amount of water at the interface (0–100 μl/cm 2 ). The proposed skin model shows good agreement with the frictional behaviour of human skin both in dry and wet conditions. In addition, the tensile Young's modulus and surface roughness exhibit changes as a function of the amount of water that are similar to those of human skin. Potential applications of the model are in the testing and development of textile materials that mechanically interact with human skin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The surfaces of fibrous materials like textiles are characterised by emergent superficial fibres forming hairiness. Hairiness is an important factor for the frictional and tactile properties of fabrics. In this study, we investigated the friction mechanisms of hairy fabrics by sliding probes with varying geometry over the textile surfaces. The total friction between a hairy fabric and a cuboid-shaped slider is given by two main contributions—one due to the contact of hairs with the front of the slider and the other one resulting from the hairiness underneath the slider. By changing the slider geometry, the relative importance of these two contributions can be systematically varied, so that conclusions about adhesion and deformation mechanisms involved in the friction of hairy fabrics can be drawn. For a given slider area and a given normal load, the force underneath the slider was found to be independent of the slider width while the force in front of the slider increased linearly with the slider width. The major contribution of the force underneath the slider is highlighted. This force is influenced by the material and surface roughness of the slider, indicating that adhesion mechanisms play a significant role in the friction. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]