AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF MOISTURE MANAGEMENT PROPERTY OF SOCKS Wenyi Wang1, Kwok-tung Hui1, Chi-wai Kan 1 *, Kornchanok Buntorn2, Kitiyaphan Pholam3 and Rattanaphol Mongkholrattanasit 2 * 1Institute of Textiles and Clothing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China 2Faculty of Industrial Textiles and Fashion Design, Rajamangala University of Technology Phra Nakhon, Thailand 3 Faculty of Home Economics Technology, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, Pathumtani, Thailand *corresponding author: tccwk@polyu.edu.hk; rattanaphol.m@rmutp.ac.th ABSTRACT The wearing comfort of socks can be affected by the fabric properties of liquid moisture management. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between the fabric parameters and moisture management of sock fabrics. The moisture management of socks fabric was measured by the moisture management tester according to AATCC 195-2012. It was found that the cotton sock fabrics were waterproof before washing. This may be due to hydrophobic treatment. The cotton material seems not to be suitable for moisture transfer . Socks are daily used apparel products, its wear comfort is an important factor determining consumer satisfaction for selecting clothing [1]. However, the climate of some Asian countries is very humid and hot. The humid weather usually causes the fabric harder to dry. The wet fabric traps the moisture or sweat on the skin and affects the comfortability, especially for the non-breathable fabric, which may increase the risk of infection and hyperthermia [2]. Therefore, the liquid moisture management property is of high importance for textile products, especially for socks [3]. The wearing comfort of socks can be affected by the fabric properties of liquid moisture management [4]. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between the fabric parameters and moisture management of sock fabrics. INTRODUCTION Table 3. Liquid moisture management of three sole fabrics.   Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Washing before after Wetting time (sec) top 13.71 12.92 12.84 8.21 9.31 10.35 bottom 119.97 67.64 74.93 63.63 Absorption rate (%/sec) 223.50 107.93 83.94 54.86 52.62 359.3 72.96 31.75 22.16 Max wetted radius (mm) 5 Spreading speed (mm/sec) 0.36 0.38 0.60 0.53 0.47 0.07 0.08 One-way transport capability (OWTC) -676.46 -142.01 -668.77 -381.56 -663.57 -361.0 Overall moisture management capability (OMMC) 0.17 0.06 0.03 EXPERIMENTAL Fabric specimen Samples of Men Supima socks were obtained from an apparel company and their specifications were shown in Table 1. Before testing, the socks were conditioned at 20±2C and relative humidity of 65±2% for at least 24 hours. Liquid moisture management The ability of moisture management of sock fabric can be measured by test method of AATCC 195-2012 by the moisture management tester (MMT). The mean average of liquid moisture transport result can be evaluated according to Table 2. Table 1. Details of the Supima cotton socks. Figure 1. The sphere shape of water droplet on the surface of sample 1, sample 2 and sample 3. The mean OMMC of sample 1, sample 2 and sample 3 is 0.0338, 0.0604 and 0.1749, respectively, as shown in Figure 2. Therefore, the best OMMC among three samples is sample 3, with Grade 1. The properties of the fabrics are water repellent. Table 2. Grading table of all indices. Index *Grade 1 2 3 4 5 Wetting Time (sec) Top 120 20 - 119 5 - 19 3 - 5 <3 Bottom Absorption Rate 0 - 9 10 - 29 30 -49 50 - 100 >100 10 -29 Max Wetted Radius (mm) 0 - 7 8 - 12 13 - 17 18 - 22 >22 8 -12 Spreading Speed (mm/sec) 0.0 -0.9 1.0 - 1.9 2.0 - 2.9 3.0 - 4.0 >4.0 0.0 - 0.9 One-way Transport Capability (R) <-50 -50 - 99 100 - 199 - 400 >400 Overall Moisture Management Capability (OMMC) 0.00 - 0.19 0.20- 0.39 0.40 - 0.59 0.60- 0.80 >0.80 Figure 3. Relationship between OMMC and Supima cotton % in sole fabrics Figure 2. Overall moisture management capability (OMMC) of three sole fabrics. Effect of fiber composition on the liquid moisture management The relationship between OMMC and Supima cotton content in sole fabrics is shown in Figure 3. The R2 value is 0.85984 (close to 1) and shows a strong negative linear relationship with almost well fit of data. This means that an increase in the proportion of Supima cotton may decrease the OMMC property. The correlation analysis between water vapor transmission and the fabric thickness is shown in Table 4. The p-value is 0.000 (p<0.05) and r-value is –0.797. This demonstrates that a significantly negative correlation between water vapor transmission and the fabric thickness exists. The higher the water vapor transmission, the lower the fabric thickness. This finding was consistent with previous research. Table 4. Correlation between Supima cotton % and OMMC. *Grade 1 is the worst; Grade 5 is the best.   Supima cotton % Overall liquid moisture capability (OMMC) Pearson Correlation -0.927** Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Liquid moisture management analysis Table 3 shows the liquid moisture management of fabrics in sole part among three samples before and after washing. Before washing, the absorption rate, max wetted radius and spreading speed of the bottom fabric in three samples were 0. It is worth noting that R value (One-way transport capability) of three samples were smaller than -50 (-676.464, -668.767, -663.565). This means that the water cannot be absorbed by the fabric, the water droplet is in the form of spherical shape on the fabric surface as shown in Figure 1. The OMMC value of three samples are 0, in the range of Grade 1. **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). CONCLUSION In this study, we investigated the relationship between the fabric parameters and liquid moisture management ability of knitted socks fabric. It was found that the cotton proportion of fabric can greatly affect the liquid moisture management properties of socks. The liquid moisture management of fabric was negatively proportional to the content of cotton because of its hydrophilcity. Hydrophilic cotton fiber was found not to be suitable for the transportation of moisture. After washing, the values of absorption rate, max wetted radius, spreading speed and one-way transport capability were shown in Table 3. Clearly, with regard to absorption rate, sample 1 has the highest value (72.96 %/sec), whereas the lowest value is seen in sample 3 (22.17 %/sec). The max wetted radius for all three samples are 5 mm. The rate of spreading for sample 3 is the highest, at 0.0784mm/sec, while sample 2 has the lowest spreading rate. CONCLUSION [1] Wehner, J.A.; Miller B.; Rebenfeld L. Dynamics of Water Vapor Transmission through Fabric Barriers. Textile Research Journal, 58(1988), pp: 581-592. [2] Wang, J.-H.; Yasuda H. Dynamic Water Vapor and Heat Transport Through Layered Fabrics:Part I: Effect of Surface Modification. Textile Research Journal, 61(1991), pp: 10-20. [3] Bertaux, E.; Derler S.; Rossi R.M.; Zeng X.; Koehl L.; Ventenat V. Textile, Physiological, and Sensorial Parameters in Sock Comfort. Textile Research Journal, 80(2010), pp: 1803-1810. [4] Tsujisaka, T.; Azuma Y.; Matsumoto Y.-I.; Morooka H. Comfort Pressure of the Top Part of Men's Socks. Textile Research Journal, 74(2004), pp: 598-602. [5] Onofrei, E., Rocha, A. M., & Catarino, A. The influence of knitted fabrics’ structure on the thermal and moisture management properties. Journal of Engineered Fibers and Fabrics, 6 (2011) (4), pp: 10-22. [6] Jhanji, Y., Gupta, D., & Kothari, V. K. Moisture management properties of plated knit structures with varying fiber types. The Journal of The Textile Institute, 106(2015)(6), pp: 663-673. Although Supima cotton is the major fiber content of three samples (hydrophilic fiber), the results show the physical properties of three sample are hydrophobic. The possible reason may be due to the manufacturing process, which treats the cotton yarn with fluorochemcials for enhancing the properties of hydrophobicity and reducing absorbency to create “wicking window” (Textile Intelligence, 2007).