15. Smart Protective Clothing for Aircraft Crew

Using smart and functional materials in textile applications has gained much more importance over the last decade in order to provide and improve some specific end product properties. In the present work, we designed spacer weft-knitted fabrics for the purpose of protective clothing – which has an electromagnetic shielding effect and a good thermal property – of aircraft crew. To provide two functions in one fabric, spacer weft-knitted fabrics composed of inherently thermally perfect wool and electrically conductive silver-plated nylon yarns were developed initially. The application of temperature-responsive polymer (TRP) and phase change material (PCM) onto these fabrics was then performed in order to enhance their thermal properties. The structural characterizations and thermal analyses performed showed that the developed fabrics demonstrated not only much better electromagnetic shielding effect but also improved thermal performance than ordinary clothing as underwear.