Modeling the mechanical and compression properties of polyamide/elastane knitted fabrics used in compression sportswear

Abstract

A compression sportswear fabric should have excellent stretch and recovery properties in order to improve the performance of the sportsman. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of elastane linear density and loop length on the stretch, recovery, and compression properties of the weft-knitted polyamide/elastane (PA/EL) stretchable fabrics used in sportswear. Two different tests were performed to study the stretch and recovery properties of the fabric 1st: under low power force and 2nd: cyclic loading under high tension force. Kikuhime pressure sensor was used to measure the pressure generated by different PA/EL knitted sample garment sleeves. It was found that with the increase in elastane linear density there is an increase in fabric course density, areal density, recovery percentage, and compression, and fabric stretch percentage and elongation percentage decreased in both course and wale direction. The results of fabric samples were analyzed in Minitab statistical software. The coefficients of determinations (R2 values) of the regression equations showed good prediction ability of the developed statistical models.