Impact of the textile substrate on the heat transfer of a textile heat flux sensor

• PES/CO-twill, PES/CO-satin and PES-sateen structures were chosen as the most adequate textile auxiliary walls for the textile heat flow-metric sensor development.
• Textile sensors are in the same range as the reference heat flux-meter for heat flux performances.
• Sensor efficiency increases with increasing dimension thanks to increasing number of thermocouples.
• PES/cotton sensors with the sateen structure give the highest sensibility.

This study presents the effect of a woven fabric's material, i.e. polyester (PES), 70/30 polyester/cotton (PES/CO) blend, and its structure, i.e. plain, twill, satin, on the heat and mass transfer properties with regard to development of a textile heat flux sensor. The main purpose of this study is the identification of the most appropriate textile substrates to produce a textile sensor. The basic textile substrate properties such as weight, thickness, air permeability and porosity were tested. Additionally, the thermal resistance of six different textile substrates was tested using the Skin Model and the water vapor transmission properties were compared according to the Dish Method. Due to their insulating properties and particular fabric pattern, PES/CO fabric with twill and satin structures, and PES fabric with a satin structure are the preferred fabrics for textile substrates. The woven textile heat flux sensor production process, which is based on thermo-electrical effect, i.e. Seebeck effect, and the test method were described. Six sensors were produced with three different textile substrates and two different sizes. Their heat flux performances were compared with a commercial reference heat flux sensor. Results showed that under steady-state the textile heat flux sensors demonstrated the same trend and sensitivity as their commercial counterparts. Due to their higher sensibilities, PES/CO sensors with a satin structure were chosen from the six textile heat flux sensors for both small and large sizes.