Search

The family use garment steamers with superheated steam have several advantages but lead natural fiber fabrics whiteness reduction. This study explored the four kinds of natural fiber fabric whiteness reduction both experimentally and theoretically. We first built a temperature controllable 1 atm superheated steam generator, and recorded the whiteness and decrease percentages of cotton, flax, silk and wool fabrics at 150°C, 175°C, and 200°C separately. Then we calculated the monotonically increases thermal diffusivity(α) as a function of fiber volume fraction( φ f ), and the α is divided into three regions based on the φ f : average region( φ f <0.3), transition region(0.3 < φ f <0.9) and fiber region( φ f >0.9). The φ f of studied samples are all in the average region, and the whiteness reduction percentage value sequence is opposite with the α, which are a reflection of the samples average properties, which means the design of superheated fabric steamers should depend on the structures or garment types of fabrics rather than fiber types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is about the heat and mass transport phenomena in a system with steam jet flow to eliminate/alleviate cloth wrinkles. We first adopted a theoretical approach to derive the mean capillary radii so that a fabric can be characterized as an assembly of capillary tubes with varying diameters. We then analyzed the processes as a heat transfer via the fibers and water via the pores in fabrics of different anisotropies. During water movement, the water weight actually intensifies the inherent anisotropy of the fabric in the water flow pattern. For heat transfer, the water weight becomes irrelevant and both convection and radiation are shown to be too trivial to include. Corresponding experiments are also conducted, using infrared and visible light cameras to record the heat and water flow processes, respectively. The results are compared with the theoretical predictions and the discrepancies are explored and explained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]