Prediction of thermal resistance of woven fabrics. Part I: Mathematical model

Thermal resistance of woven fabrics can be calculated using a lumped model wherein the yarns, interlacements and air pores in a fabric can be treated as a system of resistances. Convective heat transfer can be simulated with the help of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). This paper presents an exhaustive exercise to predict the thermal resistance of woven fabrics with the help of a first principles based model and application of CFD to simulate the convective heat transfer. Part I deals with the mathematical model developed to predict the conductive and radiative heat transfer through fabrics and validation of this model with the thermal resistance values obtained from Alambeta. Part II is based on simulation of convective heat transfer in CFD to find the coefficients of convective heat transfer and validate the values with actual results obtained from an instrument developed to measure the steady state thermal resistance of fabrics in convective and non-convective environments.