Effect of Strain and Humidity on the Performance of Temperature Sensing Fabric

Th is article reports the effect of strain and humidity on the performance of newly developed Temperature Sensing Fabric (TSF) in the laboratory environment. Temperature Sensing Fabric is a double layer knitted structure; made of polyester as a basal yarn and embedded with fine metallic wire as sensing element. Fabricated on an industrial scale computerised knitting machine, the TSF samples made of nickel, tungsten and copper wires in the form of bare and insulated form were used in this study. In order to analy ze the performance of TSF under variety of strain and humidity environ ment, tailor-made methods were devised, as relevant standards were not available. In strain testing, the TSF samples made of insulated sensing wire performed better in co mparison to the samples made with bare sensing wires. Results of the humidity testing revealed that all kinds of TSF samples (either made of sensing elements of insulated wire or bare wire) could be used in a high hu mid ity environ ment (up to 90% RH) without any compro mise in their sensing performance.