Wicking of wetting liquids into water repellent cotton fabrics

An electrical resistance technique has been developed to studythe rate of horizontal wicking of different liquids into untreated andfinish treated cotton fabrics. By estimating the critical surfacetension of both the fabrics and equivalent capillary spaces of fabricsamples from the experimental work based on Washburn derivation.The finishing agents, namely Perlit based on modified fatty acidderivatives and Baygard 430 AFF with a fluorochemical base, havebeen used. It is observed that the penetration rate and wickingdistance of finish treated samples reduce as compared to those ofuntreated samples. The results confirmed different solid-vaporsurface tension of the two types of samples due to the changes insurface characteristics of fabrics after finishing treatment. The radiiof open channels which act as capillary tubes tend to decrease,leading to blockage of tube during water-repellent finishingtreatments.

کلیدواژه ها:

Capillary wicking ، Cotton fabric ، Solid surface tension ، Water-repellent agent ، Wetting