Evaluation of air permeability behaviour of warp knitted spacer fabrics

The porosity and air permeability of 3D polyester warp knitted spacer fabric has been determined by optimizing the structural parameters and using Box and Behnken experimental design. Spacer fabrics are developed by using polyester multifilament of 80 - 120 denier on the face layer and 30 - 70 denier on the bottom layer. Polyester monofilaments of 20 - 40 denier are used in the middle layer, deciding the third dimension of the fabric. Porosity and air permeability are estimated with respect to the linear density of polyester filaments, and response the surface design is used to predict the optimum linear density. Better air permeability and porosity are observed at the face layer denier of 100 and middle layer denier of 20. The statistical analysis proves that the degree of correlation of F values is 12.44 between the filament linear density and air permeability.