Properties of water-repellent fabrics

Abstract

A review and an a nalys is of the t heor y of water repellency of textile fab ri cs have been made. The physicochemical basis underl ying the we ttability, or wa ter repe llency, of t reated fabrics is di sc ussed. A survey of the laborator y test methods for e valuating water repe lle ncy of tex til e fabri cs is presented . A s tudy wa s made of 'the water-rep ellent properties of 11 commercial ra in coat and 4 mi li tary fabric". For this s tudy two of th e more recent test methods were examined , the drop-penetration and the contact-angle tests. Two other , and older, test m e thods were a lso studied, the spray-rating and the hydros taticpress ure tests. Several exploratory observations were made in an attempt to dete rmi ne the mechanism by which water-repell en t fabrics lose the ir repellency when exposed to rai n.