A Review on Sustainable Method to Evaluate Heat and Moisture Transfer in Clothing Material

Abstract

Clothing as a tool connecting the human body and environment provides thermal and moisture comfort, and protective performance in cold, moderate, and extremely hot environments. Some methods have been proposed to analyze the heat and moisture transfer of clothing materials in various industrial fields. The numerical model as a sustainable method has made considerable progress in recent decades since it provides an efficient and cost-effective way of characterizing new designs or testing new materials. However, no comprehensive review paper focuses on the numerical model of moisture transfer in clothing materials, let alone the numerical model of heat and moisture transfer. This study aims to investigate the development of the numerical model of heat and moisture transfer. The models of heat transfer in clothing materials are briefly reviewed in this study, and then a comprehensive report on the moisture transfer and the coupled mechanism with the heat transfer in clothing materials is summarized. In addition, the keywords in the sustainable method on the heat and moisture transfer were displayed at various phases for analyzing the status of development and application of the sustainable method. This work suggests future development of the sustainable method to address research gaps and serves as a sharing and easy-to-operate platform for researchers, clothing designers, and manufacturers to enhance their knowledge for achieving thermal and moisture comfort, and developing new clothing products.