Design of functional knitted fabrics for medical corsets with high clothing comfort characteristics

Abstract

This study aims to achieve high comfort characteristics in medical corsets. For this aim, initially the expectations of users were determined by a survey and special yarns have been selected according to the survey responses. Then, different corset fabrics have been designed in a functional structure. Later, the most important body movement (stretchability), sensorial (bending rigidity) and thermophysiological comfort (air permeability, water vapour permeability, and thermal resistance) properties of these fabrics were tested and evaluated statistically. The results revealed that high levels of clothing comfort and performance properties can be established by different yarn types and fabric compositions and this will lead to achieve a successful medical therapy.

Keywords

Medical textiles medical corsets high performance fabrics clothing comfort thermophysiological comfort body movement comfort

Introduction

Nowadays, the use of corsets increases related to occurrence of diseases as a result of high tempo of daily life and heavy working conditions. They are commonly used in the medical treatments of postural deficiencies, scoliosis, slipped disk, back pain, etc. or sometimes used for aesthetic reasons. According to end use they need to achieve different characteristics such as support muscles, compression therapy or body recovery.

These products should be worn daylong, that’s why the most required characteristic is comfort for all types of corsets. Clothing comfort can be determined as satisfactory of physical and psychological harmony between body and environment. It includes four main topics: thermophysiological comfort, psychological comfort, sensorial comfort and body movement comfort. As the survey results of this study indicated that especially the parameters of thermophysiological and body movement comfort are important for corsets.

Thermophysiological comfort is strongly related to the thermal balance of the body. This balance is influenced by environmental, personal and clothing parameters. To achieve thermal balance, the thermal control function of the body should be maintained by heat, moisture and air transfer management. These parameters can be described as the most important thermophysiological comfort parameters and their processes are normally coupled under transient situations [1]. Besides thermal character of clothing, the parameters such as thickness, weight and stretchability have also great importance for providing free movement.

The heat loss from the body and feeling of comfort in a given environment is much affected by the clothing worn [1]. Various researches have been performed on clothing comfort, especially on thermophysiological comfort and it is determined that thermophysiological comfort properties of fabrics are mainly influenced by fibre, yarn and fabric properties [2]. The type of fibre [3 –6], yarn parameters (spinning technology, yarn count, yarn twist, yarn hairiness) [7], fabric characteristics (e.g. thickness, weight, tightness and porosity) [8 –13] and finishing processes [1, 14, 15] are some of the factors.

The current medical corsets on the market are commonly produced by cotton or wool yarns and they are presented as comfortable products since including natural yarns. However, as mentioned in previous researches, special yarns (regenerated, synthetic or engineered yarns) and using of different yarn types together increase performance characteristics in terms of clothing comfort. In this context, this study aims to design functional knitted structures for medical corsets. In terms of up to date studies, the most convenient fabric construction and yarn types such as cotton, bamboo, viscose, wool, engineered polyester were chosen that will provide high levels of clothing comfort. Also a double faced fabric structure was derived by using different yarns together in order to combine excellent properties of different yarn types.

Materials and methods

In this study, initially, a survey was conducted to assess expectations of a group, consisting of patients, doctors and manufacturers, for corsets in terms of body movement, sensorial and thermophysiological comfort parameters. Besides basic fabric characteristics such as thickness and weight, body movement comfort was represented by stretchability (extensibility) properties; sensorial comfort was asked as handle and surface structure; whereas thermophysiological comfort was pointed out by warm–cool feeling, air permeability, water vapour permeability and thermal insulation (Table 1).

Table 1.

Survey questions.

What is your gender?	Male/Female
What is your age?	20–30/30–40/40–50/over 50 years
What are your preferences for a medical corset?
	Code: 0	Code: 1	Code: 2
Thickness	Not required	Thick	Thin
Weight		Heavy	Light
Handle		Stiff	Soft
Surface structure		Rough	Smooth
Stretchability		Low	High
Warm–cool feeling		Warm	Cool
Air permeability		Low	High
Water vapour permeability		Low	High
Thermal insulation		Low	High

Then, the following yarn types (Table 2) were selected according to this survey responses together with current products to use in the designed structure (as weft in-laid yarn that contacts to skin as seen in Figure 1) in order to meet the expectations and to develop clothing comfort characteristics of corsets. Also cotton, conventional polyester and wool were used as the most common yarn types in the market. In knitting process, yarns used as weft in-laid were doubled to achieve the same linear density.

Figure 1.

Stitch diagram of designed structure. Y1: Ground yarn (conventional polyester yarn), chain notation: 0-1/0-1; Y2: Rubber, chain notation: 0-0/1-1; Y3: Weft in-laid yarn for front side (outer layer), chain notation: 0-0/78-78; Y4: Weft in-laid yarn for back side (inner layer), chain notation: 78-78/0-0.

Table 2.

Yarn properties used as weft in-laid yarn.

Yarn type	Multi-folded yarn count (Tex)
100% Cotton	20 × 16
100% Viscose	40 × 8
50-50% Cotton–bamboo	20 × 16
100% Polyester	20 × 16
100% Channelled polyester (C. Polyester)	20 × 16
100% Wool	40 × 8
100% Polyacrylonitrile	40 × 8

As known, natural fibres such as cotton and wool are hydrophilic fibres and their surface has bonding sites for water molecules. So water tends to be retained in the fibre structure. On the other hand, synthetic fibres such as polyester are hydrophobic fibres and they tend to remain dry and have good moisture transportation and release. Moisture absorption and release properties do not coexist in common fibres [5]. As mentioned before, cotton and wool are the most common yarn types for medical corsets in the market. Therefore, in this study these yarns were used to present current products. Besides, in order to achieve high levels of comfort and to combine the special characteristics of different fibres, double faced knitted structures were designed (by cotton, polyester and wool yarns as cotton/polyester, cotton/wool and polyester/wool) and thermophysiological comfort properties of these structures were tested on both sides (outer and inner layers) in order to decide the optimum face that would be used next to skin. Fabric characteristics are given in Table 3.

Table 3.

Fabric characteristics.

Fabrics according to weft in-laid yarn	Outer Layer	Inner Layer	Thickness (mm)	Weight (g/m²)
Cotton/cotton	Cotton	Cotton	2.73	933.83
Viscose/viscose	Viscose	Viscose	2.80	1003.57
Cotton–bamboo/cotton–bamboo	Cotton/bamboo	Cotton/bamboo	2.62	991.66
Polyester/polyester	Polyester	Polyester	3.07	1086.63
C. Polyester/C. Polyester	C. Polyester	C. Polyester	2.79	986.50
Wool/wool	Wool	Wool	2.92	1095.10
Polyacrylonitrile/polyacrylonitrile	Polyacrylonitrile	Polyacrylonitrile	3.03	993.13
Cotton/polyester	Cotton	Polyester	3.02	1042.00
Polyester/cotton	Polyester	Cotton
Cotton/wool	Cotton	Wool	2.95	1014.00
Wool/cotton	Wool	Cotton
Polyester/wool	Polyester	Wool	3.10	1090.00
Wool/polyester	Wool	Polyester

The fabrics were evaluated in two main groups which have different or same yarn combinations in outer (front side) and inner (back side) layers and these groups are illustrated in different colours in Figures 3, 4 and 6 to 8 (black or grey).

Figure 2.

Survey results (percentage of responses).

Figure 3.

Stretchability results.

Figure 4.

Circular bending rigidity results.

Figure 5.

Air permeability results.

Figure 6.

Images of (a) cotton fabric, (b) polyester fabric and (c) wool fabric surfaces.

Figure 7.

Relative water vapour permeability results.

Figure 8.

Thermal resistance results.

For the production, a warp knitted structure which is commonly used in corset manufacture was designed and knitted on a crochet knitting machine (Kuş Makina San. ve Tic. A.Ş., Model: KMK V800, the whole design system was further improved to produce higher fabric width) by using polyester yarn (150 denier) as ground and rubber thread for elasticity (rubber diameter = 0.552 mm). Figure 1 exhibits stitch diagram of designed structure, where Y1 is ground yarn, Y2 is rubber, Y3 and Y4 are weft in-laid yarns on front and back surfaces (outer and inner layers), respectively.

Within the study, the most important body movement (stretchability), sensorial (bending rigidity) and thermophysiological comfort (air permeability, water vapour permeability and thermal resistance) properties were tested and evaluated statistically (Table 4). Coefficients of variation for test variables are given in Table 5. To determine whether the effects of yarn type on measured comfort parameters are significant or not, variance analyses were carried out by using Duncan multiple comparison procedure. The result of tests is a set of subsets of means (Tables 6 to 10), where in each subset means have been found not to be significantly different from one another.

Table 4.

Tested parameters and test methods.

Tested parameters	Test standards	Test devices
Stretchability	ASTM 2594	–
Circular bending rigidity	ASTM 4032	SDL Atlas Digital Pneumatic Stiffness Tester
Air permeability	EN ISO 9237	Textest FX3300 (with a pressure of 100 Pa on the sample area of 5 cm²)
Water vapour permeability	EN 31092	Permetest (Sensora instruments)
Thermal resistance	–	Alambeta (Sensora instruments)

Table 5.

Coefficients of variation for test variables.

	Stretchability	Circular Bending Rigidity	Water Vapour Permeability	Thermal Resistance	Air Permeability
CV%
Cotton/cotton	0.74	2.30	3.04	2.29	1.24
Viscose/viscose	1.36	1.36	0.49	1.12	4.80
Cotton–bamboo/cotton–bamboo	1.37	5.03	3.06	1.39	3.53
Polyester/polyester	1.99	3.38	4.22	1.11	3.90
C. Polyester/C. Polyester	1.10	0.54	2.48	1.73	3.36
Wool/wool	1.25	0.49	2.42	3.44	2.30
Polyacrylonitrile/polyacrylonitrile	0.92	3.36	2.52	0.79	6.53
Cotton/polyester	1.20	4.91	1.39	3.88	6.03
Polyester/cotton	1.20	4.93	3.15	2.44	5.87
Cotton/wool	1.61	3.23	0.91	1.25	3.21
Wool/cotton	1.61	4.06	5.47	2.53	2.14
Polyester/wool	1.20	3.22	3.88	2.86	4.24
Wool/polyester	1.20	3.74	3.32	0.61	3.98

Results and discussion

Survey results

The survey was conducted to people to find out the expectations on medical corsets and 120 people were asked to evaluate the related parameter according to their subjective preferences (Table 1). A total of 62.5% of respondents are female and 77.5% of respondents aged between 20 and 30 years. However, this investigation could give general results, which are slightly different from these of people aged over 50, who usually wear the medical textiles.

Survey results displayed that all parameters except warm–cool feeling are required for medical corsets. These products are preferred as thin, light, soft, smooth and flexible; besides breathable with high air and water vapour permeability. Besides, there is not any certain expectation about thermal insulation property (Figure 2).

According to the survey results, the important comfort parameters were determined as handle, stretchability, air and water vapour permeability and these features were evaluated objectively. Although there is not any certain expectation about thermal resistance, it was also tested since it is accepted as one of the most effective mechanisms for thermoregulation for the products especially used next to skin.

Test results

Stretchability

Movement can be enhanced particularly by the garment fit and the quality of body fit is related to the stretch potential of fabric characteristics. The ability to predict how closely stretch fabric should conform to the body for optimum performance. Stretch garments will stretch automatically in the right places to give an acceptable fit, enhance comfort and provide freedom of movement. Easy movement can be achieved by greater fabric stretch than free body expansion.

The degree of stretch expressed as a percentage which is calculated by subtracting the relaxed length from the extended length and dividing this result by the original length. It was proved that polyacrylonitrile yarn ensure the highest extensibility. This percentage decreases for the fabrics including polyester, cotton, channelled polyester, viscose, wool and bamboo yarns, respectively (Figure 3, Table 6). Such products as medical corsets are worn long term and used frequently, thus stretchability can be expressed as one of the most important parameters for these products. According to the results, the corsets knitted by synthetic yarns can be suggested in terms of high extensibility.

Table 6.

Variance analysis of stretchability results.


Fabric type according to weft in-laid yarns (outer layer/inner layer)	N	Subset for alpha = 0.05
	N	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Duncan
Cotton–bamboo/cotton–bamboo	3	73.02
Wool/wool	3		83.08
Polyester/wool	3			86.14
Cotton/wool	3				90.03
Viscose/viscose	3					95.40
Channelled polyester/ Channelled polyester	3					96.17
Cotton/polyester	3						102.30
Polyester/polyester	3						103.00
Cotton/cotton	3						103.83
Polyacrylonitrile/polyacrylonitrile	3							126.90
Sig.		1.000	1.000	1.000	1.000	.461	.171	1.000

Bending rigidity

Bending rigidity indicates the stiffness characteristics of the fabrics and it is one of the significant properties for determination of sensorial comfort behaviours like as drapeability and handle. In accordance to the definition of sensorial comfort, which was defined as the feelings resulting from contact between body and garment, handle property is so important for suitability especially for next to skin garments. A lower value of bending rigidity supports the positive impression of handle and so sensorial comfort [16].

The results indicated that channelled polyester provides the softest feeling, whereas the fibres bamboo and wool (especially for inner layer) cause stiff fabric structure (Figure 4, Table 7). The bending rigidity results can be related to bending property of the yarns. As mentioned in the explanation of air permeability characteristics, the bending lengths increase for polyester, cotton and wool yarns, respectively, as well as the bending rigidity values. In addition to yarn stiffness, bending rigidity can also be related to stretchability values of fabrics. As it can be seen in Table 6, cotton–bamboo and wool fabrics have stiffer structures and correspondingly lower stretchability.

Table 7.

Variance analysis of circular bending rigidity results.


Fabric type according to weft in-laidyarns (outer layer/inner layer)	N	Subset for alpha = 0.05
	N	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Duncan
Channelled Polyester/ChannelledPolyester	3	9.25
Polyacrylonitrile/polyacrylonitrile	3		10.30
Cotton/polyester	3			12.00
Polyester/cotton	3			12.23
Polyester/polyester	3				13.15
Wool/cotton	3				13.18
Cotton/cotton	3				13.25
Wool/polyester	3				13.25
Viscose/viscose	3					14.83
Polyester/wool	3					15.35
Cotton/wool	3						16.42
Wool/wool	3							17.80
Cotton–bamboo/ cotton–bamboo	3							18.40
Sig.		1.000	1.000	.577	.827	.222	1.000	.159

According to these results, the softer structures including polyacrylonitrile, polyester and cotton inner layers can be suggested for garments that have direct contact with the skin such as medical corsets.

Air permeability

The clothes especially used in higher temperature conditions should be able to provide evaporation to the sweat by allowing dynamic air exchange. Here, air permeability parameter is accepted as one of the most important factors, which often used in evaluating and comparing the breathability characteristic. This parameter mainly depends on fabric structure and yarn properties and the most effective parameter is porosity for air permeability character [9].

The results showed that polyester fibres cause the lowest, while wool fibres achieve the highest air permeability values (Figure 5, Table 8). Figure 6 illustrates the surface structure images of cotton, polyester and wool fabrics. As seen in this figure, although the structures were knitted with the same machine settings, wool fabric has a more porous structure than polyester and cotton fabrics. This can be explained by the bending rigidity of the yarns. The bending properties of these three yarns were tested by Shirley Stiffness Tester with the same procedure as mentioned in literature [17]. Bending lengths of weft in-laid yarns were found as 2.6 cm for wool yarn, 2.0 cm for cotton yarn and 1.80 cm for polyester yarn. Lower bending property provides a higher conjunction tendency, hence the yarns settled within the structure in a compact form. Therefore, higher bending length of wool yarn forms a porous structure because of stiffer yarn characteristics.

Table 8.

Variance analysis of air permeability results.


Fabric type according to weft in-laid yarns(outer layer/inner layer)	N	Subset for alpha = 0.05
	N	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Duncan
Polyester/cotton	10	37.45
Polyester/polyester	10	37.90
Cotton/polyester	10	38.20
Cotton–bamboo/ cotton–bamboo	10		42.24
Cotton/cotton	10		42.55
Wool/cotton	10			47.45
Wool/polyester	10			48.99	48.99
Cotton/wool	10				49.70
Polyester/wool	10				50.46
Viscose/viscose	10					54.26
Polyacrylonitrile/ polyacrylonitrile	10						57.52
Channelled polyester/ channelled polyester	10							68.35
Wool/wool	10								72.70
Sig.		.463	.745	.108	.148	1.000	1.000	1.000	1.000

Besides, the air permeability characteristics of double faced structures represent mean values between the fabrics produced by individual yarns within the fabric structures and there is not any significant difference to use front or back side.

Air permeability is important as well as weight parameter for medical corsets since they should be worn all day long. The results pointed out that channelled polyester yarns will allow high permeable characteristic close to wool products and so this two corset types will be convenient for summer and winter use, respectively, if other comfort properties were also considered.

Water vapour permeability

The rate at which water vapour moves through a fabric plays an important role in determining the comfort as it influences the human perception and the cool/warmth feeling. The body produces moisture in the form of perspiration in to avoid clinging of fabric on to the skin and to keep skin surface dry. A fabric allows a faster water vapour transfer said to be a breathable fabric [18]. If a structure provides higher air exchange (permeability) combined with higher breathability, it would create an incredible comfort through a wide range of actives. Therefore, water vapour permeability and also air permeability have great importance for medical corsets for the purposes of thermal balance and air circulation of microclimate, since they are used next to skin.

The results indicated that channelled polyester yarn provides the highest water vapour permeability due to its structured surface with four external channels that creates a capillary effect and form a larger surface area over which moisture can be rapidly transferred away. On the other hand, fabrics including wool yarns have lower permeability values because of their hydrophilic characteristic which provides them to absorb moisture almost one-third of their own weight, however causes low transfer capacity and so slow drying. Besides, much better water vapour permeability values can be achieved by using different yarn types as double faced structures. For instance, wool/cotton fabric structure provides higher permeability than both cotton and wool fabrics and also cotton/wool structure (Figure 7, Table 9). Along with these results, it is obtained that corsets produced by channelled polyester yarns will provide optimum characteristic especially for summer use with the highest water vapour and also air permeability values.

Table 9.

Variance analysis of relative water vapour permeability results.


Fabric type according to weft in-laid yarns (outer layer/ inner layer)	N	Subset for alpha = 0.05
	N	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Duncan
Wool/wool	3	16.50
Cotton/wool	3	16.87	16.87
Polyester/wool	3	17.53	17.53	17.53
Wool/polyester	3		18.30	18.30	18.30
Polyacrylonitrile/polyacrylonitrile	3			18.73	18.73	18.73
Cotton/cotton	3			18.73	18.73	18.73
Cotton–bamboo/cotton–bamboo	3			18.87	18.87	18.87
Cotton/polyester	3			19.00	19.00	19.00	19.00
Polyester/polyester	3				19.67	19.67	19.67	19.67
Wool/cotton	3					20.07	20.07	20.07
Viscose/viscose	3						20.40	20.40
Polyester/cotton	3							20.80	20.80
Channelled polyester/ channelled polyester	3								22.17
Sig.		.154	.051	.061	.080	.088	.064	.131	.050

Thermal resistance

Thermal resistance is one of the main aspects for thermoregulation in order to keep body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. The most effective mechanisms for thermoregulation (heat loss) especially during activities are heat transfer and sweating.

Thermal resistance is the reciprocal of thermal conductivity and is a material property indicating the resistance of the material to thermal conduction. The thermal resistance properties of textiles depend on thermal conductivity, fabric tightness or density, material thickness and thermal emission characteristics. It is a function of the actual thickness and thermal conductivity and is defined by the following relationship, where h is fabric thickness and λ is thermal conductivity

R = \frac{h}{λ}, (m^{2} K / W)

(1)

As seen in Figure 8 and Table 10, the fabrics knitted using synthetic yarns such as polyester and polyacrylonitrile provide higher thermal resistance values because of their higher thicknesses (Table 3), while thinner structure of cotton/bamboo fabrics lead to lower thermal insulation characteristic. Besides, thermal insulation characteristics of double faced structures, which constitute different types of inner and outer layers, affected both of the yarn types. According to the results, thermal insulation value of double faced structures (i.e. cotton–wool) represents approximately mean value of the fabrics produced by one yarn type (i.e. cotton–cotton and wool–wool), except polyester/wool structure. This structure exhibits the highest thermal resistance value within all fabric samples. In addition, it will be better to use natural yarn on the back side and synthetic yarn on the face of the structures to achieve higher insulation values.

Table 10.

Variance analysis of thermal resistance results.


Fabric type according to weftin-laid yarns (outer layer/inner layer)	N	Subset for alpha = 0.05
	N	1	2	3	4	5	6
Duncan
Cotton–bamboo/cotton–bamboo	3	.036
Cotton/cotton	3	.037
Cotton/polyester	3		.042
Viscose/viscose	3			.044
Cotton/wool	3				.046
Polyester/cotton	3				.047
Wool/cotton	3				.048	.048
Channelled polyester/channelled polyester	3					.049
Wool/wool	3					.049
Wool/polyester	3					.050
Polyester/polyester	3						.054
Polyacrylonitrile/polyacrylonitrile	3						.054
Polyester/wool	3						.055
Sig.		.229	1.000	1.000	.109	.050	.076

Conclusion

This study aims to design functional knitted structures for medical corsets. Within the study, the most convenient fabric construction and yarn types such as cotton, bamboo, viscose, wool and engineered polyester were chosen in order to achieve high levels of clothing comfort. Also a double faced fabric structure was derived by using different yarns together in order to combine excellent properties of different yarn types.

The comparison results can generally be listed as:

Medical corsets produced by cellulosic fibres (cotton, bamboo and viscose) are appropriate for hot climate and high physical activities with optimum air and water vapour permeability characteristics besides their naturally fineness, lightness and high thermal conductivity values. Especially viscose fibre stands out with higher water vapour permeability and better stretchability within cellulosic fibres.

Channelled polyester fibres are more advantageous for summer corsets than other fibres in terms of thermophysiological comfort with higher air and water vapour permeability values. Also they support body movement comfort with good extensibility. So the corsets knitted using channelled polyester yarns will be convenient for use in hot climate or in high physical activities as well as cellulosic fibres. Moreover in terms of sensorial comfort, this fibre provides the softest feeling and it is the most convenient fibre type for corsets, which have direct contact to the skin.

Wool and polyacrylonitrile fibres have high thermal insulation and good air permeability because of their thick and bulky structures, whereas they exhibit low water vapour permeability. These features make them preferable for the corsets that will be used in cold climate. However, the stretchability and bending rigidity values stated that wool fibre is not convenient for medical corsets because of lower extensibility and stiff fabric structure. Alternatively, medical corsets including polyacrylonitrile fibres will provide optimum thermophysiological comfort with better body movement and sensorial comfort by high extensibility, softness and lightness properties.

The thermal insulation values of the fabrics produced by conventional polyester yarns are rather good than other fabric constructions due to their high thickness. However, their air permeability characteristics are weak. These features gain a high barrier characteristic to these corsets. Besides high moisture transfer capacity of synthetic fibres ensures better water vapour permeability. Therefore, the corsets produced by polyester yarns should be preferred for cold weather even if during sweating. But they are not appropriate for high physical activities because of their high thickness, high weight and low stretchability properties.

The evaluations of the double faced corsets showed that significant changes have been occurred in thermophysiological (especially in water vapour permeability) and sensorial comfort values by the use of different fabric surfaces as outer and inner layers. Thus, it is important to decide the fabric layers perfectly according to aim of usage, as well as to choose fibre types that will be used in the structure. Besides, the values of stretchability, air permeability and thermal insulation of double faced structures, which constitute different types of inner and outer layers, represent approximately mean value of the fabrics produced solely by inner or outer yarns (i.e. R_{cotton-cotton} < R_cotton-wool < R_wool-wool).

If it is considered that medical corsets should be worn next to skin all day long and used frequently in long term, the most important fabric characteristics are thickness, weight, stretchability, handle, permeability and thermal resistance for comfortable clothing. The results revealed that high levels of clothing comfort and performance properties can be established by different yarn types and fabric compositions. As conclude, a successful medical therapy will be achieved using the corset designed by a special construction.

Footnotes

Acknowledgement

The author wish to thank Burak Sarı, Burcu Sakarya, Sedef Köse and Nedime Tanrıverdi for their help in laboratory testing.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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