Effect of Traffic Exposure on Toughness Characteristics of Hand-Knotted Carpets

Abstract

Compression performance is a major factor in determining the life wear of each carpet. The toughness of the pile surface, as one of the compression properties of carpets, changes when exposed to wear in use. The main aim of this study was to predict the toughness characteristics of the surface piles of hand-knotted carpets at different levels of traffic ex posure. Two types of hand-knotted carpet samples with symmetric and asymmetric knots and similar structural specifications were produced. A Hexapod tumbler tester was used to impose controlled worn out at different traffic exposures (drum revolutions). The samples were then tested with a tensile tester in the compression mode, and load-crush curves were obtained. The compression toughness characteristics and loss rate of toughness of the carpet samples were determined at 0 (new carpet), 4000, 8000, 12000 and 16000 revolutions of the Hexapod tumbler tester. Regression analysis was used to find the correlation between the traffic exposure (drum revolutions) and compression toughness characteristics. The results showed that knot type affects the toughness characteristics of the carpet. However, this effect is not statistically significant at the 5% level. On the other hand, different traffic exposure significantly affects the toughness characteristics at the 5% level.