Double Layered Breathable Knitted Fabric With Human Motion Adaptive Function for the Dynamic Thermal Management

As the second skin of the human body, knitted clothing can provide the necessary thermal insulation, ensuring stable body temperature and comfortable sensations both during activity and rest. Given different thermoregulatory needs under these distinct physiological states, current study presents a double-layered breathable knitted fabric with adaptive localized regulation. Its engineered structure could transform bio-mechanical energy from motion into kinetic energy that drives mesh apertures, reducing thermal resistance to enhance heat dissipation. During rest, inherent elastic recovery closes the mesh, increasing thermal resistance to minimize the heat loss subsequently. Experimental results demonstrate exceptional fabric deformability and stretch recovery of DSBF (Double sides breathing fabric). When stretched to 140% strain, the air permeability increased to 300% of its original value. Meanwhile, obvious temperature variation between the inner and outer surfaces of garment occurs with the opening and closing of perforations, with the variation reaching 2.0°C. Infrared thermography tests confirm that, relative to the comparative sample, the modified garment increases the thermal resistance by 0.023 (K·m²)/W at rest while decreasing it by 0.002 (K·m²)/W during motion. Dynamic stretch-breathable fabric panels enable bidirectional regulation of the garment's inner-surface temperature, with changes ranging from -0.8°C-1.3°C  between static and activ states. This corresponds to an estimated 12%-19.5% reduction in building energy consumption for climate-controlled indoor environments.