WETTABILITY OF BLENDED ASSEMBLIES OF TWO DIFFERENT FIBERS

Blended assemblies of two different fibers were prepared. One of the two fibers belongs to a group of fibers, which absorb water well as single assemblies, e. g. cotton, rayon, and acrylic. The other belongs to a group of fibers, which hardly absorb water as single assemblies, e. g. wool, polyester, and polypropylene. In this report, cotton/polyester, rayon/polypropylene, and acrylic/wool blended assemblies were used. Dependences of wetting behavior of these blended assemblies on the blended ratio and the porosity were discussed. The experimental procedures are as follows. Sample assemblies suspended from a strain gauge were immersed into water. Apparent weight of the sample assemblies in water were followed by the strain gauge as a function of elapsed time and the relations between retained air index (Va/Vc) and the time were obtained. As a result of this study, each combination of fibers showed the characteristic wetting behavior. Since blended assemblies of acrylic with wool gave a result extremely different from the others, the wetting behavior of blended assemblies of rayon with wool was also measured to understand the wetting behavior of blended assemblies of acrylic with wool.