Local and whole ventilation of rainwear with different aperture designs

Copyright © 2017 Editorial Board of Journal of Donghua University, Shanghai, China.Aperture design is very important in the design process of rainwear, as garment aperture is one of the main pathways for air exchange between clothing microclimate and the environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of aperture design on whole and local ventilations of rainwear. Ventilation was measured by a tester developed based on the steady-state method. A rainwear suit with top and bottom was chosen as the basic ensemble. Apertures were added at the arm, chest, back and knee separately. Local ventilation of the arm, chest, back and whole ventilation of the top and bottom in different walking and wind conditions were measured. Local and whole ventilations at five aperture conditions for the top and four for the bottom were studied. The results indicated that local ventilation value of the chest was the biggest and the arm was the smallest. Whole ventilation of the suit was the biggest when walking at 5.6 km/h, with all the designed apertures opened. Local ventilation value was bigger when opening arm aperture than that of opening chest or back aperture. The bottom ventilation was the highest when both front and back apertures were opened.