Breaking Progress Simulation and Strength Prediction of Woven Fabric under Uni-axial Tensile Loading

Abstract

The chain-of-bundles model and a Monte Carlo method were used to simulate the breaking progress of plain weave woven fabrics under uni-axial tensile load and to predict the tensile strength of the fabrics. The variations of the bending outline at the cross-over point between warp and weft and the additional strains of the crossing yarns by crimp interchange have been considered in order to analyze yarn interaction and to determine the critical length. Two approaches, shear-lag analysis (SLA) and the local load-sharing (LLS) rule, were used to calculate the stress concentration factors, which determine the load redistribution scheme once a yarn breaks. Then the Monte Carlo simulation was conducted to simulate the failure progress of woven fabrics. The simulation strength distributions of fabric samples can be fitted with two-parameter Weibull distribution. By comparison with the test data, it was found that the shape parameter of simulated strength by LLS rule was larger and the value of scale parameter smaller than that by SLA. The predicted strength by LLS was smaller than the test data, whereas that by SLA showed better agreement with the test data. It is likely that the SLA approach is more suitable for predicting the strength of woven fabrics under uni-axial tensile load.