Numerical simulation of the effective thermal conductivity of wet clothing materials

Clothing materials may be considered composite materials composed of fiber, air, and moisture. For this paper, effective thermal conductivities of wet clothing materials were analyzed numerically using a proposed heat transfer model. The following simplifications were introduced. The clothing material fiber is woven with a single yarn, there is no air movement between fibers, and mass transfer is neglected. Numerical calculations were made using finite difference equations for steady three-dimensional heat conduction for several composite materials representing wet clothing materials. The main results obtained were as follows. The effective thermal conductivity of wet clothing material increases as the thermal conductivity of the yarn and the moisture content increase. We found that our numerical results agree qualitatively with those previously measured. The effective thermal conductivity of a wet layered material depends on the distribution of moisture and attains a maximum in the wet layer.