The Mechanical Properties of Woven Fabrics

Abstract

Frictional forces play an important role in the flexural' behavior of a fabric by increasing its resistance to bending and impeding its recovery from deformations. It has been shown that the effect of frictional restraint is to introduce considerable deviations from the behavior of an elastic lamina. From an analysis of these deviations, a fairly accurate estimate of elastic bending rigidity and frictional restraint can be obtained separately, which gives reasonable explanation of the recovery characteristics of a fabric. The values of elastic bending rigidity and frictional. restraint, as given by two different methods of measuring stiffness are in good agreement which shows that, for a genuine comparisrm of results from different bending tests, the effect of frictional restraint cannot be ignored. The new parameter of frictional restraint can be readily measured and a knowledge of its value appears to be of considerable practical importance. It is a measure of the extent to which stresses in a fabric have relaxed and. therefore, indicates the degree of set imparted to a fabric as a result of a particular finishing treatment.