Abstract
Comfort is one of the most important factors influencing the performance of apparel such as knitted elastic clothing, woven elastic shirts and elastic velvet fabrics. The compressive behavior of knitted elastic fabric affects the excellence in comfort. This study aimed to investigate the comfort of knitted elastic fabric based on compressive load. For this purpose, fabrics were produced with three different stitch densities (loop sizes), and compressive load tests were applied at three various penetration depths. According to these parameters, 9 fabric samples were prepared. Each sample was tested 30 times; therefore, the total number of examined cases was 270. The compressive load was measured using special designed tools, which were installed on the Instron tensile tester. The effects of penetration depth and loop size on compressive load were evaluated by using the CCD statistical model with four repeats of each experiment. The results indicate that the loop size and penetration depth have significant influence on the compressive load, which is modeled by a third order equation with R2 of 0.999 between applied model and experimental data. Consequently, the comfort could be predicted in terms of loop size and penetration depth. Utilizing this method can help apparel manufactures produce knitted elastic clothing with high comfort, according to the end use of garment.