• Question: Why do some fabrics stop the wind better?

    Asked by Zobo64 to Colin, John, Kevin, Shikha, Triona on 12 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Tríona O'Connell

      Tríona O'Connell answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      The weave of fabric is very important in how wind (or water resistant) it might be. Knitted fabrics have a lot of holes in them (your tshirts are made from a knit fabric called jersey, and let’s the wind through well). Fabrics where the fibres are a lot closer together like in canvas or ripstop nylon (the light covering of tents and kites) are better at stopping the wind as they have fewer or no gaps between the fibres.

    • Photo: Shikha Sharma

      Shikha Sharma answered on 20 Nov 2014:

      Hi Zobo64,

      The amount of wind a fabric stops is a function of its aerodynamic porosity. Aerodynamic porosity is the ratio of holes to solid that the wind “sees”. It is less than visual porosity. These holes size and number decides how much air can pass. So the fabric which has less holes will stop more wind. 🙂

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