Fiber Yarn Research Articles

Twistocaloric Modeling of Elastomer Fibers and Experimental Validation.

The twistocaloric effect is attributed to the change in entropy of the material driven by torsional stress. It is responsible for the torsional refrigeration of fiber materials that has been widely exploited as one of the solid-state cooling techniques with high efficiency and low volume change rate. The lack of theories and mathematical models of twistocaloric effect, however, limits broad applications of torsional refrigeration. In this work, a twistocaloric model is established to capture the relationship between twist density and temperature variation of natural rubber fibers and thermoplastic elastomer yarns. An experimental setup consisting torsion actuator and torque sensor coupled with a temperature measurement system is built to validate the model. Using the Maxwell relationship, twistocaloric coefficient is measured by quantifying the thermal effect induced by torsion under shear strain. The experimental characterization of the twistocaloric effect in natural rubber fiber and thermoplastic elastomer yarn are consistent with the theoretical predictions.

Parametric 3D simulations of spun yarns and fabrics

Yarns and fabrics usually have regular structures such as periodic patterns as well as irregular texture such as surface hairiness. To improve the accuracy of fabric simulation, a fibre and yarn level parametric modelling method based on the Rhino&Grasshopper package was developed in this study. The geometric and structural characteristics of fibre and spun yarn were analysed. The fibre cross-section shape, packing distribution, and yarn hairiness were established to build a three-dimensional yarn model first. Then, realistic simulation of a woven fabric was carried out, incorporating yarn hairiness features for the first time. The results show that the fibre to fabric parametric modelling method based on Rhino&Grasshopper has high fidelity and broad application prospects.

The influence of yarn fiber volume fraction, shear angle, and yarn spacing on crack propagation resistance of plain‐woven fabric‐reinforced epoxy composites

AbstractThis study investigated the effect of fabric parameters on crack propagation in plain‐woven e‐glass reinforced epoxy composite plates. Through numerical analyses, the study contributes to understanding the effect of fabric structure on crack propagation and adopting a more precise approach in the design of composite materials. The yarn fiber volume fraction, shear angle, and yarn spacing parameters were selected as variables for the plain‐woven fabric, and material properties were determined for each parameter using the composite homogenization method. A finite element model was created using the Ansys software package, and stress intensity factors (SIFs) and tear stress values were obtained under mode I loading to investigate the effects of fabric structure on crack propagation. The results showed that as the yarn fiber volume fraction ratio increased, the SIF values decreased and the T‐stress values increased. When evaluated according to the shear angle of the yarn, the lowest SIF value was obtained for the 0‐degree shear angle. The same was observed for T‐stress values as well. Additionally, compared to the fabric structure aligned along the X‐axis, a significant decrease occurred in the SIF value due to the perpendicular fiber density increase to the crack propagation direction with symmetric orientation.

Short carbon nanotubes: From matrix toughening to interlaminar toughening of CFRP composites

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are widely used for strengthening and toughening of resin matrix. However, the improvement of resin matrix toughness can't be effectively transferred to carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites due to the “fiber filtration effect”. Here, short carbon nanotubes (SCNTs, average length <2 μm) were added to the epoxy resin and then used as the matrix of CFRP. The test results showed that 0.5 wt% SCNTs is the optimal mass fraction for matrix toughening, which enhanced the maximum strain, maximum stress and toughness of the epoxy resin by 43.3%, 10.1% and 65.9%, respectively, and the mode I interlaminar fracture toughness of resultant CFRPs was increased by as much as 86.7%. The superior interlaminar toughening efficiency of SCNTs can be ascribed to their smaller size, which enables them to penetrate into the tiny gaps of carbon fiber yarns, thus not only effectively avoiding the “fiber filtration effect” and making them evenly distributed in the matrix, but also strengthening the interfaces between epoxy resin and carbon fibers.

Performance Study of a Leaf-Vein-like Structured Vapor Chamber.

As optoelectronic products continue to advance rapidly, the need for effective heat dissipation has become increasingly crucial due to the emphasis on miniaturization and high integration. The vapor chamber is widely used for cooling electronic systems as a passive liquid-gas two-phase high-efficiency heat exchange device. In this paper, we designed and manufactured a new kind of vapor chamber using cotton yarn as the wick material, combined with a fractal pattern layout of leaf veins. A comprehensive investigation was conducted to analyze the performance of the vapor chamber under natural convection circumstances. SEM showed that many tiny pores and capillaries were formed between the cotton yarn fibers, which are very suitable as the wick material of the vapor chamber. Additionally, experimental findings demonstrated the favorable flow and heat transfer characteristics of the cotton yarn wick within the vapor chamber, which makes the vapor chamber have significant heat dissipation capability, compared to the other two vapor chambers; this vapor chamber has a thermal resistance of only 0.43 °C/W at a thermal load of 8.7 W. In addition, the vapor chamber showed good antigravity capability, and its performance did not show significant changes between horizontal and vertical positions; the maximum difference in thermal resistance at four tilt angles is only 0.06 °C/W. This paper also studied the influence of vacuum degree and filling amount on the performance of the vapor chamber. These findings indicate that the proposed vapor chamber provides a promising thermal management solution for some mobile electronic devices and provides a new idea for selecting wick materials for vapor chambers.

Productivity and Quality Improvement by SCM in Textile and Apparel Industry - An Overview

Retailing, marketing, and merchandising in fibre production, yarn spinning, fabric manufacturing, wet processing, product distribution and disposal are coming under the textile manufacturing process. Any supply chain management consists of many deals such as money, goods, information, and services both inside and among different entities like suppliers, information processing, warehousing and customer dealing. India is one of the world’s few countries which works across the entire value chain process in the textile and apparel industry. Supply chain management in modern textile manufacturing is a crucial part. In the analysis of supply chain management, statistical techniques like factor analysis, structural equations, etc. are used. The three essential variants in the supply chain are such as push-pull chain, pull supply chains, and push/pull supply chains. Information is a major component of supply chain.

Quasi-static, cyclic loading tests of RAC brick masonry walls strengthened by basalt textile reinforced concrete

This study experimentally evaluated the performance of unreinforced masonry (URM) walls, with and without basalt textile reinforced concrete (BTRC) strengthening, under quasi-static in-plane lateral loading tests. Five half-scaled specimens were constructed using recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) bricks, including unreinforced and BTRC reinforced walls. The first URM wall served as a control specimen, while the remaining four specimens featured varying strengthening configurations, achieved by changing the number of textile layers (two and four) in the BTRC overlay and the strengthening patterns (single and double side). The failure modes, axial deformation behavior, lateral resistance, deformability, stiffness degradation, energy dissipation, and equivalent viscous damping of the tested walls were examined. BTRC strengthening altered the failure mode of URM walls from diagonal cracking accompanied by rocking to rocking and slight shear sliding, thereby maintaining the integrity of the wall at large lateral displacements. Increasing the textile layer enhanced lateral resistance and deformability. Applying a BTRC overlay to a single side of the URM wall yielded satisfactory improvements, with even greater efficiency observed when an equal amount of textiles was evenly applied on both sides. Finally, by taking the contributions of vertical and horizontal fiber yarns into account, a new model involving different failure modes was proposed to estimate the ultimate lateral resistance of BTRC-strengthened masonry walls, showing good agreement with experimental results.

Toughening Mechanism of Directional Fabric Woven Net and/or Non-Directional Short-Cut Fiber-Reinforced Sprayed Cement Mortar Thin-Plates.

In this paper, a non-directional short-cut polyvinyl alcohol fiber (PVA), directional carbon-glass fabric woven net, and a combination of these fibers were used to reinforce sprayed cement mortar (named FRCM-SP, FRCM-CN, and FRCM-PN accordingly), and the direct tensile and four-point bending tests of these three types of thin plates were conducted. It was shown that the direct tensile strength of FRCM-PN reached 7.22 MPa under the same cement mortar matrix, which was 175.6% and 198.3% higher than that of FRCM-SP and FRCM-CN, respectively; the ultimate tensile strain of FRCM-PN was 3.34%, which was 65.3% and 1291.7% higher than that of FRCM-SP and FRCM-CN, respectively. Similarly, the ultimate flexural strength of FRCM-PN reached 33.67 MPa, which was 182.5% and 519.6% higher than that of FRCM-SP and FRCM-CN, respectively. In addition, the tensile, bending toughness index, and residual strength factor of FRCM-PN were much higher than those of FRCM-SP and FRCM-CN, indicating that the incorporation of non-directional short-cut PVA fibers improved the interfacial bonding properties between the cement mortar matrix and the fiber yarn and significantly enhanced the toughness and energy dissipation capacity of the sprayed cement mortar. Therefore, the use of a certain amount of non-directional short-cut PVA fibers can improve the interfacial bonding properties between the cement mortar and the fabric woven net while ensuring the spraying performance and significantly improving the reinforcing and toughening effect on the cement mortar to meet the demand for large-area rapid construction and structural seismic reinforcement.

Yarn tension model and vibration analysis during unwinding of carbon fiber bobbins

A low-quality unwinding process of the unwinding machine can lead to downtime of the knitting machine and loss of fabric quality. To address this issue, we studied the tension and vibration of carbon fiber yarns during unwinding. Based on the theory of axially moving strings, the dynamic model of carbon fiber yarn was established during the unwinding process, bringing the parameters into the simulation. According to the simulation results, the yarn tension in the unwinding process is closely related to the spring preload, which needs control within a certain range. When the unwinding speed increases, the fluctuation amplitude, lateral vibration amplitude, and axial vibration amplitude of the yarn tension gradually increase, causing friction and wear of the carbon fiber yarn. By controlling factors such as spring preload, unwinding speed, and the number of bobbins unwound simultaneously, one can effectively control the yarn’s vibration and improve the quality of the yarn.

Joining of Composites with Metals using Graded Metal Fabric Interfaces

A major challenge in the implementation of fibre-reinforced plastics (FRPs) is the provision of stress-appropriate joints with other materials. Establishing a high-strength, graded metal fabric interface using industrially established joining methods is a target-oriented approach in this context. For this purpose, a novel solution based on a textile transition structure in combination with the evaluation of different joining methods is presented in this article. A process chain was developed that depicts both the design and production of textile transition structure as reinforcement material of the FRP component and the further processing to metal FRP composites. Within the textile transition structure, the hybrid fabrics combine glass fibre yarns and metal flat wires, where the latter enable the joining process and transfer loads into the reinforcing glass fibres. The manufacturing implementation of this new joining interface from the textile to the hybrid component is described in detail within the paper. Furthermore, results of mechanical load tests of the graded metal fabric interface are presented. The research results make a significant contribution to the development of innovative graded metal fabric interface with a benign failure behaviour and a great potential especially with regard to the efficient joining of mixed material constructions in large-scale applications.

Design and fabrication of high-performance 3D printed continuous flax fibre/PLA composites

The mechanical properties of 3D-printed continuous plant fibre-reinforced poly(lactic) acid (PLA) composites are insufficient due to the low fibre volume fraction (∼30 %). Further increase of fibre volume fraction of composites by reducing the line width may result in a composite with low fibre impregnation degree or the clogging of printer nozzle because of the twisted nature and uneven diameter of plant yarns, which also degrades the mechanical properties. This study proposed a method to obtain 3D printed continuous flax fibre reinforced composites (CFFRCs) with a high fibre volume fraction and excellent mechanical performance by statistical analysis of the dimensions of flax fibre yarns as well as surface modification. The CFFRCs were printed by a fibre prepreg-based 3D printing method, and an in-situ impregnation method was also used to prepare CFFRCs for comparison. The results showed that the CFFRCs by the fibre prepreg method had a fibre volume fraction of 44.1 % and a void content of ∼1.9 % due to the high impregnation degree. Correspondingly, the tensile modulus and strength of the CFFRCs were the highest among the existing reported values of the composites made by 3D printing and even greater than those of the CFFRCs with a fibre volume fraction of ∼51.4 % prepared by the in-situ impregnation method.

Analysis of the transverse compressive behavior of cotton yarns and fabrics

The inherent complexity of textile preforms and a high degree of consistency in dry fabrics and yarns present a number of modeling challenges, including uncertainty in geometrical characteristics under external loads, non-elastic deformations of fibrous media, and multiple deformation modes at the fiber and yarn scales. The prediction of the compaction reaction for different preforms is still possible thanks to the direct measurements of yarn compaction. The data are checked against compression stress-thickness curves that were produced by compacting yarns and preforms. The yarn and fabric compaction model given in this article demonstrates the final characteristics of woven preforms. The yarn compaction curve exhibits asymptotic hardening with a restricted compaction state attained at high compression stress and as the limit deformations are being approached. The yarn count, yarn fiber volume ratio, and the spinning method all affected the compression modulus. The transverse compression behaviour of yarns and fabrics was studied both analytically and experimentally. Mechanisms of fabric compressibility have been found to be reliant on both fabric and yarn specifications of warp and weft Young’s modulus. Investigations were made into the fabric’s fiber volume fraction under compression stress. When producing composite with low fiber volume fraction preforms, it may be more efficient to use more compression, according to research on the link between compressive stress and fabric volume fraction. The relationship between the compressive stress and fabric volume fraction was investigated, as well as the value of maximum compression stress.

A progressive damage model for quasi-static tension of 2D woven composites and FEM implementation

We tested the quasi-static tension behavior of the high-strength glass fiber four-Harness stain woven composite, Kevlar fiber plain woven composite, and their laminated hybrid composite. Their representative volume element models are established based on mesoscopic cross-section photographs combined with voxel mesh. A progressive damage model for predicting the damage initiation and evolution of the 2D woven composites is proposed. The crimping effect of plain-woven composites has been considered. The 3D Hashin and the maximum stress criterion are used as the fiber yarn and matrix's damage initiation criterion, respectively. The exponential model is used as the damage evolution model of the fiber yarn. A combination of exponential and reverse tangential damage models has been proposed to describe the damage evolution of the matrix. The proposed damage model is realized using user-defined subroutine UMAT and VUMAT. Abaqus/Standard performs the uniaxial tensile simulation of the two kinds of 2D woven composites with UMAT. Abaqus/Explicit solver simulates the laminated hybrid composite with VUMAT. The simulation results highly agree with the experiment results.

On the Pressure and Rate of Infiltration Made by a Carbon Fiber Yarn with an Aluminum Melt during Ultrasonic Treatment

The effect of the infiltration time of a carbon fiber yarn in the range of 6 to 13.6 s on the infiltrated volume under the cavitation of an aluminum melt has been studied. When the infiltration time was more than 10 s, the carbon fiber was completely infiltrated with the matrix melt, and a decrease in the infiltration time led to a monotonous decrease in the fraction of the infiltrated volume. Based on the experimental data, the infiltration rate and the pressure necessary to infiltrate a carbon fiber yarn with an aluminum melt were estimated. The infiltration rate was 20.9 cm3/s and was independent of the infiltration depth. The calculated pressure necessary for the complete infiltration of a carbon fiber yarn at this rate was about 270 Pa. A comparison of the pressure values calculated according to Darcy’s and Forchheimer’s laws showed that the difference between them did not exceed 0.01%. This indicates that a simpler Darcy’s law could be used to estimate pressure.

Experimental study on flexural strength of stitched foam composites

Sandwich composites and laminate composites are considered as major classes of lightweight structures in a wide range of engineering applications. Lightweight potential of fabric has demonstrated the specific mechanical properties of sandwich composites with or without core material. Many studies have shown that tension, compression, flexure, stress is improved or degraded up to 20% by a stitched process. The present paper focuses on the study of structural improvements of stitched foam composite and also to compare it with unstitched composite of the same glass fiber material. The use of vacuum bagging process to make the stitched foam composite structure and a simple hand lay-up technique for unstitched composite. These composites are made by using E Glass fiber 180GSM, aradur hy 951 hardener, Araldite ly 556 epoxy resin and glass fiber yarn. For stitched foam composite, laminates are stitched in transverse direction i.e., through thickness direction with high strength yarn. 3-point bending test is done to find flexural strength of both composites and compare their results stitched sample showed higher value of flexural strength and flexural rigidity after three-point bending test the strength of stitched composite is 40% more than unstitched composite material.

The effects of interfacial thermal contact resistance between yarns and matrixes on the thermophysical property of the plain woven C/SiC composite

The plain woven C/SiC composites with high thermal shock resistance are widely used in aerospace applications. For this composite, thermal contact resistance (TCR) has an unneglectable contribution to the thermophysical property. In this work, the influence of the TCR on the thermophysical property of a real 2D plain woven C/SiC composite is studied. X-ray CT scanning is used to obtain the microstructures of the C/SiC composite, and the complex structures are restructured and transformed into standard cube grids based on the theory of the intersection of rays and triangles. Combining with finite difference method (FDM) and multiple GPUs acceleration, an efficient approach for numerically predicting the thermophysical property of the real C/SiC composite is established. Based on the Laser Flash Method (LFM) and Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) method, the effective thermal conductivities (ETCs) of the C/SiC composite at different temperatures are obtained experimentally. The results show that ETCs predicted by our numerical method are closer to the measured ones when TCR is considered. Through the numerical simulation and theoretical analysis, the correlation between the ETC and TCR is obtained, which is proved to be a typical Logistic function, and the physical meanings of various constants in the correlation are determined and discussed. Besides, the thermal response time increases with the TCR increasing, simultaneously, the distributions of isotherms and heat-flux trajectories more approach the distributions of fiber yarns in the material.

Fashion accessory products design from handspun mulberry and cotton blended yarn: Mechanical characteristics and consumer response

The purpose of this research was to investigate the composition ratios and mechanical qualities of handspun yarn made from mulberry and cotton blended fibers for textile craft, design fashion products made from handspun yarn, and evaluate the target group’s opinions on the fashion products. Using the mixed methods research approach, this study integrated both experimental and quantitative research. The results revealed that handspun mulberry and cotton fibers blended yarn at the ratio of 40:60 had the most disorganized fibers and the highest crimp level. However, the four varied composition ratios of these two types of fibers had no significant effect on the fiber weight and yarn count of the handspun yarn (p > 0.05). In terms of mechanical qualities, the 40:60 handspun yarn had the highest tensile strength and tenacity (p > 0.05) compared to pure cotton handspun yarn. The elongation property of the 20:80 blended mulberry and cotton fiber yarn was determined to be the highest. The target group, which included experts, community members, and consumer perspectives, had the highest level of agreement. Textiles produced from Mulberry fiber, an agricultural waste, have the potential to revitalize weaving communities. This research is also valuable to cotton weaving communities, textile designers, and artists.

Effect of Yarn Physical Properties on Fiber Migration and Packing Density of Cotton/Acrylic Blended Yarns

In the scope of the study, the effect of fiber blending ratio, yarn count and twist coefficient on fiber migration, packing density and diameter of the cotton/acrylic blended yarns were investigated. The yarn samples with 75-25%, %50-50%, 40-60% cotton-acrylic blending ratios were produced with three different yarn numbers; 20/1 Ne, 24/1 Ne, 30/1 Ne and three twist coefficients; 3.5 α, 4 α, 4.5 α. Thus, totally 27 yarn samples were obtained. The yarn cross-sectional samples were sliced with microtome. The image frames of yarn cross-sections were acquired via digital microscope. The yarn packing density was calculated by using image processing algorithm and the fiber migration was determined via cross-section images. The results were evaluated statistically.

Photocatalytic degradation of paracetamol mediating luminous textile: Intensification of the chemical oxidation

An innovative photoreactor was applied as an emerging advanced oxidation process (AOP) to investigate Paracetamol (PL) degradation under different operating conditions. The system consisted of a textile woven from optical fiber and textile yarn. The luminous fiber textile was coupled to UVA LED, and the photocatalytic textile fibers is impregnated with TiO2. The effectiveness of configuration I, based on a luminous textile with UV LED, was compared with that based of TiO2 immobilized on cellulosic paper (CP) with external UV irradiation (configuration 2). The specific degradation rate obtained with configuration 1 was 40 times higher than that with configuration II. Configuration I also showed efficient performance in mineralization per Watt consumed, with values reaching 81 times higher than those obtained with configuration II. Also, to achieve high removal efficiency of the pollutant with the new technology of luminous textiles, the effect of operating parameters, namely pollutant concentration, UV intensity, flow rate and TiO2 mass deposited were discussed. It is worth noting that the optimal conditions for a 95.7 % degradation rate of 1 mg/L of Paracetamol were obtained with 26 g/m2 mass catalyst, 5 W/m2 UV intensity and 52.2 L/h flow rate after 340 min. In addition, upon associating two luminous textiles, the degradation efficiency reached 98.76 % after only 140 min. Besides, by adding hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in the optimal conditions with 10 mg/L of Paracetamol concentration, the degradation efficiency reached 98.81 % after 240 min. The excellent performances in terms of degradation rate, mineralization per Watt consumed, and energy consumption make luminous textiles an attractive alternative to conventional photocatalytic reactors designed for the removal of Paracetamol in water and wastewater.

Spreading of water microdroplets simulating human sweating in polyester yarns and fabrics

Thermo-physiological comfort of human body is highly influenced by the moisture transmission behaviour of the fabric. For active sportswear, intimate apparels and inner layer of extreme cold weather clothing, moisture transport is very crucial. The liquid moisture transport of fabrics is analysed using standardised test methods like vertical wicking, absorbency test and moisture management through moisture management tester. These test methods use large reservoir of liquid in contrast to human sweating behaviour. The human skin generates sweats in the form of microdroplets through sweating glands. Hence, the standard test procedures employed to assess the fabric’s liquid moisture transport fail to capture preciously the sweat transport from human skin to the fabrics. Hence, in this work, the spreading behaviour of water microdroplets simulating human sweat through yarns which are the building block of fabrics and knitted fabrics that are widely used as sportswear or inner layer of extreme cold weather clothing are investigated. The purpose of this study is to understand how the microfluid move along the capillary channels in yarns (in the forms of network of yarns crossing over each other and fabric) by keeping yarn count and twist same for all yarns. A single micro drop representing accumulated sweat droplets and multiple drops showing continuous sweating through sweat glands were allowed to wick through the yarns made up of coarser and finer fibres to understand the role of fibre diameter on wicking kinetics. Results from the conventional wicking test were compared with microfluidic wicking. It is found that the initial wicking speed in coarser-fibres yarn is faster in comparison to finer-fibres yarn, but the final wicking height is longer in finer fibre yarn. Overall liquid spreading length found to be similar for both the yarns. Yarn to yarn liquid transfer at crossover junctions is faster with finer-fibre yarn compared to coarser-fibre yarn. Same trends are found in fabrics constructed with these yarns. The effect of yarn tortuosity on liquid spreading behaviour has also been studied. As the yarn path becomes torturous (straight yarn to fabric form) wicking length also decreases.