Thermo-physiological Comfort Performance of Recycled Plain Knitted Fabrics Produced from Acrylic Waste Fiber with the Effects of Incorporated Covered and PBT Elastic Yarns

The objective of this work is to evaluate the thermo-physiological comfort performance properties of the recycled acrylic plain knitted fabrics produced from recycled open end yarn including acrylic waste fiber in comparison with those of equivalent virgin acrylic counterparts, considering the effects of incorporated covered and PBT elastic yarns. Acrylic fiber is characterized by possessing wool-like handle and thermal comfort characteristics, which makes acrylic waste fiber good candidate for sweater-like knitted fabric applications worn in cold weather conditions. Covered polyester/lycra and PBT elastic yarns are included into the study to give added value to the recycled fabrics. Comparing the thermo-physiological properties of the recycled and virgin acrylic fabrics, it is observed that in the recycled acrylic fabrics, thermal conductivity and thermal absorptivity are found to be lower, whereas thermal resistance is higher. These thermal values make recycled acrylic fabrics appropriate for cold weather. Regarding to elastic yarn state, the addition of either the covered yarn or the PBT yarn leads to increase in the thermal conductivity, thermal resistance and thermal absorptivity properties and the covered yarn tends to affect the thermal parameters more than the PBT yarn. The lowest air permeability and water vapor permeability results are achieved for the fabrics with the covered yarn.