Investigation of Thermal Comfort Properties of Black Fabrics for Abaya

Abaya, a traditional outer garment worn by women in the Middle East, is made from black fabric. Black fabric absorbs most of the heat from sunlight, making the abaya wearer very uncomfortable in hot climate. In order to reduce the amount of heat absorption by abaya and improve its comfort performance, a treatment with solar energy reflecting chemicals is proposed. This could lead to wearer feeling cooler and perspire less. This paper investigates the thermal comfort properties of plain woven fabrics dyed in black and treated with chemicals that would reflect the energy from sunlight. The fabrics were made from either 100% wool or polyester/wool blends. The experimental results showed that the fabrics treated with the energy reflection chemicals give marginal improvement in polyester/wool blend in moisture management and surface roughness as compared to fabrics without the treatment.