Abstract: During the actual wearing of apparel, the “environment-apparel-human body” system often stay in an unstable state. Compared with steady-state conditions, the heat and moisture transfer of fabrics under unsteady-state conditions will have complicated changes. Based on the literature review, the paper discusses the influence of changes in related conditions on the heat and moisture transfer of fabrics from three perspectives, i.e., external conditions, fabric properties, and human physiological state. It also introduces the existing evaluation methods, and proposes the entry point and direction of the future research on the evaluation of fabric’s heat and moisture properties under unsteady-state conditions.

Key words: unsteady state; fabrics; heat and moisture transfer; evaluation method