Analysis of a two-way tension-shear coupling in woven fabrics under combined loading tests: Global to local transformation of non-orthogonal normalized forces and displacements

Abstract

Dependence of shear rigidity of woven fabrics on yarn pre-tension has been reported in the recent literature, however some conflict regarding the trend of this effect is observed. Sources of this conflict are discussed and resolved in the present article using a new characterization framework and a custom-design combined loading fixture. It is shown that in order to correctly characterize the tension-shear coupling behavior in woven fabrics, instead of using global measured data, local normalized forces and displacements should be driven via a non-orthogonal transformation procedure, while considering kinematic force coupling in the setup. In addition, the effect of fabric shear on the tensile behavior of yarns has been investigated, suggesting that the coupling under question is in fact two-way. In particular, results revealed that applying yarn pre-tension increases the shear resistance of the fabric reinforcement, while the tensile behavior of the material becomes more compliant when undergoing shear deformation.