The objective of this paper is to report the values of thermal resistance in natural and convection heat transfer modes through woven fabrics. An instrument developed on the principle of the guarded hot plate method will be discussed. The instrument is precise up to two decimal places and the accuracy is approximately 14%. The fabrics were tested in a natural as well as forced convective mode with air velocity of 1m/s flowing parallel over the fabric surface. It was observed that the thermal resistance of the fabric in forced convection is less than that in the natural convective mode.
The thermal resistance can be predicted with the help of a statistical model when all the constructional parameters are taken together. A polynomial equation consisting of linear, interaction and square terms based on the response surface modelling was developed for both the conditions of heat flow. It was observed that as all constructional parameters, such as warp and weft count, thread spacing, thickness, fabric weight and porosity are taken as variables, the response function; namely thermal resistance can be predicted with a high coefficient of determination and less average error.
