A Comprehensive Analysis of Thermal Comfort and Steam Protective Performance of Fabric Systems Containing a 3D Spacer Layer

Spacer fabric (SF) as an ideal candidate for steam protective clothing, provides outstanding thermal insulation and moisture permeability owing to its sandwich structure. This study developed 14 spacer fabric systems (SFSs) and investigated the effects of 4 SF design parameters, including heat setting, spacer yarn fineness, feeding structure, and top layer structure, on thermal comfort. Furthermore, the quantitative relationship between thermal comfort and steam protective performance of SFSs was explored. The results demonstrated that thermal resistance (R_cf) and evaporative resistance (R_ef) of SFSs increased with the increasing of monofilament fineness, whereas increasing the fineness from 30 to 50 D had a negligible influence. The feeding structure displayed a greater impact on the thermal comfort than monofilament fineness, and the R_cf and R_ef showed the sequence of feeding structure I < II < III. SF heat setting and top layer structure minimally influence the R_cf and R_ef of SFSs. The R_ef was positively correlated with the time to second-degree burn, and negatively correlated with absorbed energy during exposure and total absorbed energy, both strongly and significantly (p < 0.05). This study contributes to revealing the design mechanism of thermal and moisture related properties of SFSs and developing steam protective clothing with good thermal comfort.