COMPARISON OF MECHANICAL AND THERMAL COMFORT PROPERTIES OF TENCEL BLENDED WITH REGENERATED FIBERS AND COTTON WOVEN FABRICS Abdul Basit 1 , Wasif Latif 1 , Munir Ashraf 2 , Abdur Rehman 2 , Kashif Iqbal 2 *, Hafz Shahzad Maqsood 1 , Abdul Jabbar 1 , Sajjad Ahmad Baig 3 1 Department of Yarn Manufacturing, National Textile University, 37610, Faisalabad, Pakistan 2 Department of Textile Processing, National Textile University, 37610, Faisalabad, Pakistan 3 Department of Business Administration, National Textile University, 37610, Faisalabad, Pakistan *Corresponding e-mail address: kashif.tch@gmail.com 1. Introduction The production of textile fbers has grown to nearly 100 million metric tonnes, with major categories being synthetics (63%), cotton (24%), regenerated cellulosic (7%), other natural fbers (5%), and wool fbers (1 %) [1]. Of the water present on earth, fresh water that is consumable for human, animal, or plant is 0.65%, and only 0.3% of fresh water is renewable. Among the diferent crops, cotton requires much water, damaging freshwater ecosystem globally. Even though cotton fber is sustainable, the production of 1 kg of cotton fber needs more than 20,000 l of water, consuming 24% and 11% of global insecticide and pesticides consumption, respectively. Also, cotton crop uses 2.4% of world’s crop land. Moreover, cotton cultivation destructs ecosystems in various parts of the globe [2]. As only 7% of the regenerated fbers are being used currently, these have great potential for use in textile clothing. Three generations of regenerated cellulosic fbers, such as viscose, modal, bamboo, and Tencel fbers are the most important fbers because of certain properties regarding textiles and environment. Diferent production processes and conditions for conventional viscose, modal, bamboo, and new Tencel fbers cause diferences in the structure of the fbers, although they have similar chemical compositions [3]. The microstructure and thermal properties of Tencel, modal, and viscose fbers were analyzed using DSC, FTIR, and TG. The spectral analysis of FTIR shows that Tencel is highly crystalline than other fbers having crystalline cellulose II and amorphous cellulose. In this way, Tencel is found to have more thermal stability than modal and viscose [4]. All the regenerated fbers are biodegradable, of which Tencel fber has high strength, which contains water in its structure as a source of heat capacity that helps in human body’s temperature regulation. Modal is a modifed form of viscose with induced high wet strength, high comfort, fne lustre, hand, smoothness, wicking properties, and performance properties such as strength and modulus. Bamboo fber is extremely soft, cool, and breathable and has higher luster and more moisture absorption. In addition, it has anti-UV properties and inherent antibacterial properties. The microgaps and microholes present in the cross section of bamboo fber enhance moisture absorption and ventilation [5]. Organic Crop Improvement Association (OCIA) has certifed bamboo viscose fber as an organic fber that can be degraded by microorganisms and sunshine [6]. Viscose fbers are also hydrophilic. These inherent physiological fber properties are ideal for moisture management. The moisture management properties ensure an ample temperature balance on the skin by enhancing the overall thermal comfort. Many studies in which Tencel having outstanding properties was blended with other fbers to study diferent yarn and fabric properties were conducted. Blended yarns of Tencel, cotton, and modal were studied, and it was found that Tencel:cotton blend Abstract: The demand of cotton is increasing but its low production rate cannot fulfll the world requirements. The increase in cotton demand has augmented the production of regenerated cellulosic fbers. Furthermore, cotton has proved to be unsustainable because of the use of huge amount of fresh water, pesticides and insecticides. The purpose of this work is to fnd out the suitable blend/blends of regenerated fbers so as to replace 100% cotton fabrics. Therefore, mechanical and comfort properties of Tencel fabrics blended with other regenerated cellulose fbers have been compared with 100% cotton to achieve the equivalent or even better end properties. Hence, cotton, viscose, Tencel, modal, and bamboo fbers were taken. Plain woven blended fabrics of 100% cotton and 50:50 blends of Tencel with other regenerated fbers were prepared from normal yarn count of 20 tex. The mechanical properties (warp- wise and weft-wise tensile and tear strengths, pilling, and abrasion resistance) and the comfort properties including air permeability, moisture management properties, and thermal resistance were evaluated. It is found that Tencel blended fabrics show better results than 100% cotton fabrics. Therefore, it is concluded that Tencel blended with these regenerated fabrics can be used to replace 100% cotton fabrics. Keywords: Tencel, regenerated blends, mechanical properties, comfort properties, woven fabrics http://www.autexrj.com AUTEX Research Journal, Vol. 19, No 1, March 2019, DOI: 10.1515/aut-2018-0035 © AUTEX 80