WATER TRANSPORT ALONG TEXTILE FIBERS AS MEASURED BY AN ELECTRICAL CAPACITANCE TECHNIQUE

A new experimental apparatus has been developed for studying water tra nsport behavior along a bundle consisting of a few textile fibers. In order to detect the small amount of water that travels along fibers, w e used an electrical capacitance technique and constructed an apparatu s with a specially designed electric amplifier circuit and condenser e lectrodes between which sample fibers are set. We studied nylon, polye ster (PET), and rayon fibers and found that there exists a minimum (cr itical) number of constituting fibers (CNF) when water transport occur s, depending on the fiber type. These CNF values were ten, ten, and tw o for nylon, PET, and rayon, respectively. We discussed these results on the basis of the wettability of the fibers.