The Behavior of Fabrics in Shear

Abstract

A new instrumental method for the analysis of the stress-strain behavior of fabrics in shear has been designed which utilizes the Instron and its automatic recording. It is similar in principle to the laboratory method previously employed by Treloar. A cotton and a spun viscose fabric were investigated for their dependence of shear properties on specimen shape and normal stress. The range of variables previously investigated by Treloar has been extended to include specimen shapes corresponding to length: width ratios of 1:1 to 20: 1, and normal stresses of 0 to 120 g/cm. It was found that the properties of the long, narrow specimen in shear were much less sensitive to the normal stress than were those of the square specimen, particularly at the important lower values of the normal stress. The more favorable wrinkling behavior of the long, narrow specimen enables one to extend the range of test conditions beyond those of the square specimen. It is further shown that Behre's theory for the incidence of wrinkling could not be experimentally corroborated.