Indian Journal of Fibre & Textile Research Vol. 37, December 2012, pp. 381-384 Horizontal liquid spreading behaviour of hybrid yarn woven fabric using embedded image analysis principle D Raja 1,a , C V Kouhik 1 , G Ramakrishnan 2 , V Ramesh Babu 2 & V Subramaniam 3 1 Department of Fashion Technology, Sona College of Technology, Salem 636 005, India 2 Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore 641 049, India 3 Jaya Engineering College, Chennai 602 024, India Received 3 September 2011; revised received and accepted 18 January 2012 A new technique based on the principle of embedded image processing has been used to measure the horizontal water spread in textile fabric as a function of time. Horizontal water spread areas of different fabrics with different yarn counts are observed for doubled yarn produced from ring, compact and ring/compact combinations. It is found that the doubled yarn count and doubling combinations influence the liquid spread behaviour in the fabric. Keywords: Comfort, Image processing, In plane wicking, Horizontal wicking, Wetting Among the most significant factors that affect garment design, especially sportswear, the most important one is the rate at which a garment wicks a liquid. Transverse wicking is a unique phenomenon with respect to the water transfer behaviour of fabrics, since it has no directional effect. However, the precise experimental measurement or the prediction of the liquid spread upon wicking poses challenges. A variety of techniques and methods are used to study experimentally liquid penetration into fabrics. Gillespie 1 was among the foremost researchers to make an in- depth study of the spread of liquid drops on filter paper. Unlike filter paper, textile fabrics are not isotropic, so the area formed by a liquid spreading on a textile fabric is seldom a perfect circle. It is therefore more meaningful to measure the area covered by the spreading liquid. Another difficulty with measuring the spreading of the liquids on porous substrates is the speed with which the liquid front moves. Kissa 2 measured the area of spread of a drop of liquid on textile fabric as a function of time. The area of liquid spread was photographed at uniform time intervals with an instant-picture camera. The area depicting the spreading liquid was cut out from the dried photograph and weighed. Lee et al. 3 studied horizontal wicking in fabrics by means of a spectrophotometer, to avoid using balances. They determined the liquid weight wicked into the fabric by measuring the difference in colour depth between the wet and dry fabric. Fichet et al. 4 developed a method based on the change in electrical resistance of the fabric with its water content. The results obtained by this method depend on spacing of the concentric rings and the accuracy of electrical resistance value. Another instrument, developed by IIT Delhi to measure in-plane wicking of fabrics, works on the siphon principle; water uptake by the fabric is recorded manually with time 5 . Adams et al. 6 developed a similar instrument to measure the in-plane flow of fluids in a fibrous network. They used an image analysis technique to obtain the shape and position of a radially advancing fluid front to throw light on the directional permeability in the plane. Morent et al. 7 and Perwuelz et al. 8 used image analysis instead of an analytical balance to determine the extent of horizontal wicking. The progression of the liquid front during wicking was recorded with a digital camera and an algorithm was used to calculate the area of the fabric wetted by the fluid. In the present work, a technique based on embedded image analysis using a 32-bit digital signal processor has been used to determine the area of water spread in textile fabric with respect to time. This technique has enabled an in-depth study of the water spreading behaviour. A 24-bit true colour digital camera of 13.1 megapixels with a high-resolution 5-glass optical lens that ensured a sharp and bright image quality was used to study the dynamics of liquid movement on the fabric surface. The camera was also fitted with a facility for automatic brightness adjustment and colour compensation. It was mounted on a stand, equipped with a C-mount and LED light, and connected to a personal computer via its USB port (Fig. 1). It is also compatible with Image-Analysis software capable of recording and processing images of the water spread on fabric. ———————— a To whom all the correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rajaslm@gmail.com