Relationship between Subjective and Objective Evaluations of Knitted Fabrics for Summer Garments

For eight types of knitted fabrics for summer garments and, for comparison, one type of winter garment fabric, subjective hand evaluations were performed under dry and wet conditions, and the fabricsʼ physical properties, such as their tensile strength, shear strength, and surface properties, were evaluated under dry conditions using the Kawabata evaluation system for fabrics (KES-FB). Three factors related to “pleasant, slippery dry feeling,” “smooth, flexible feeling,” and “cool feeling” were extracted following factor analysis of ratings obtained from the subjective hand evaluations. Each factor score exhibited a difference depending on the state of the sample (dry or wet) and the type of material in the fabric. For a plain knitted fabric consisting of 87% polyester and 13% polyurethane (Sample H), each factor score tended to be high under dry conditions. In comparison to other samples, Sample H exhibited higher slipperiness, smoothness, elasticity under shear deformation, tensile recovery, thermal conductivity, and maximum heat flux (qmax) for the contact temperature sensation indicated and lower shear rigidity. For all of the samples, except for the two evaluation description pairs “sticky-slippery” and “dislike-like,” the subjective evaluation values estimated from multiple regression analysis using measurements of physical properties and subjective hand evaluations were similar to the experimental subjective evaluation values for both dry and wet conditions. Hence, the fact that subjective hand evaluation results can be predicted from the objective measurements of physical properties indicate the possibility of practical implications of the fiber product design.