Plain Woven Fabrics Research Articles

Hybrid panels from woven Kevlar® and Dyneema® fabrics against ballistic impact with wearing flexibility

.This paper reports on a study of hybrid ballistic panels consisting of plain-woven fabrics made from Kevlar® and Dyneema®, aiming to achieve protective and flexible ballistic panels. Experimental and numerical approaches were adopted for this research. Ballistic penetration tests indicated that the single-phase Kevlar® fabric panels was more energy absorbent than that of the Dyneema® fabric panels at low areal density. When the areal density reached around 1.4 kg/m2, the Kevlar® woven fabric panels started to outperform the Dyneema® counterpart in terms of energy absorption. Accordingly, hybrid panels from the two types of fabrics were engineered and such panels were associated to the higher specific energy absorption than the single-phase panels. It was also found that placing the Kevlar® fabric layer close to the impact face and the Dyneema® fabric layers towards the back face resulted in an improvement of around 16% in ballistic performance over the panels constructed in the reverse sequence. In this investigation, the optimum ratio of the two types of fabrics in hybrid panels was found to be 1:1.

Identifying the distinct shear wrinkling behavior of woven composite preforms under bias extension and picture frame tests

An analytical-experimental study of the shear wrinkling behavior of plain woven composite preforms under bias extension test (BET) and picture frame test (PFT) is presented. The intentionally induced tension in the PFT has been regarded in a large portion of the literature as the source of delay in fabric wrinkling initiation as compared to the BET. Through this study, however, it is demonstrated that shear within yarns – known as intra-yarn shear – could be another cause of the delayed wrinkling in the PFT, even when the tension level in yarns is kept at zero. To better explain this hypothesis, an analytical model has been developed and the meso-level nature of wrinkle formation in the BET and PFT is compared. Analytical equations are provided to predict both the fabric locking and wrinkling onsets under these characterization tests, and verified experimentally on a carbon fiber plain woven fabric.

An overview of yarn pull-out behavior of woven fabrics

This paper reviews the topic of yarn pull-out on a plain woven fabric. It deals with previous works on experimental testing and theory exploration regarding this process, also including the prominent stick-slip behavior and the associated modeling techniques. Finally, it discusses the advances in chemical treatment and construction modification for the increase in yarn gripping force. The current paper serves as a source of literature for those willing to undertake additional research in this area and for those interested in developing flexible body armor with improved ballistic protection.

Thermal analysis of conventional and performance plain woven fabrics by finite element method

The research reports the development of geometrical models of woven fabric structures and evaluation of fabric thermal properties by using finite element method. A mesoscopic scale modelling approach was used to investigate the effective thermal conductivity and thermal resistance of woven textile structures. Various techniques, including scanning electron microscopy and experimental methods, have been adopted to obtain the actual three-dimensional parameters of the fabrics for finite element analysis. The research revealed that the thermal anisotropy of fibres, fibres material orientation and temperature-dependent thermal conductivity of fibre has a significant impact on the effective thermal conductivity of fabrics because experimental and simulated results were highly correlated with the consideration of above-mentioned factors.

Flame-resistant pure and hybrid woven fabrics from basalt

This work has been formulated to investigate the burning behavior of different type of fabrics. The main concentration is to see how long the fabric resists after it catches the fire and the propagation of fire can be reduced by using flame resistant fiber i.e basalt. Basalt fiber is an environmental friendly material with low input, high output, low energy consumption and less emission. The goal of present investigations is to show the dependence of fabric flammability on its structure parameters i.e weave type, blend type etc. Fabric weaves have strong effect on flammability properties. Plain weave has the lowest burning rate as the density of the plain weave fabric is more and the structure is tight which gives less chances of flame passing through the fabric. Thermal stability is evaluated with TGA of all hybrid and nonhybrid fabrics and compared. The thermal stability of the basalt fiber is excellent. When comparing thermal analysis curves for hybrid samples it demonstrates that thermal stability of the samples containing basalt is much higher than the non- hybrid samples. Percentage weight loss is less in hybrid samples as compared to non-hybrid samples. The effectiveness of hybridization on samples may be indicated by substantial lowering of the decomposition mass. Correlation was made between flammability with the infrared radiations (IR)

The Layer of Kevlar Angle-interlock Woven Fabric Effect on the Tensile Properties of Composite Materials

This article is based on the structure of three-dimensional angle-interlock longitudinal.The 3-layer, 5-layer, 7-layer and 9-layer of angle-interlock 3D fabrics are woven on sample weaving machine respectively with the 1500D Kevlar fiber twist filament produced by United States DuPont. At the same time, Kevlar plain weave fabric is woven, and three, five, seven and nine layers’ fabric are to be compared. In the process of VARTM composite technology, epoxy resin is matrix material, acetone is diluent, triethylene tetramine is curing agent and the five different fabrics are the reinforced materials respectively. Finally, eight different three-dimensional woven fabric composites were prepared. In this paper, the tensile properties of eight kinds of three-dimensional woven fabric composites were tested respectively.Finally, it is concluded that the five-layer angle-interlock woven fabric prepared by Kevlar fiber shows the best tensile property.

3D model of intra-yarn fiber volume fraction gradients of woven fabrics

Accurate predictions of laminate strength is important for engineering. Overestimations of laminate strength can be due to variations in local fiber volume fraction. However, intra-yarn fiber volume fraction gradients (G) within laminated plain woven fabrics (PWF) have not been investigated sufficiently to consider their effect in laminated strength predictions. This study addresses this shortening by a proper determination of G in laminated PWFs and proposes a corresponding model (GM). We tested the hypothesis that G can be modeled according to analytical models of the laminates meso-level structure. All required parameters were determined from scanning electron microscopy images of laminated PWFs of different fiber volume fraction. The GM was implemented in Matlab and matches the experimental data well. In addition, finite element simulation of interlaced yarns were conducted to understand the origin of G. The proposed model is a 3D description of G in PWFs. Using this model may lead to a significantly improved prediction of the laminate strength.

Comparison between sorption isotherms of non-ironed and steam-ironed plain weave fabrics

The aim of this study is to control if the steam ironing effect applied on cotton clothing can persist in different climatic conditions. For this purpose, the effect of steam ironing process on the sorption isotherms of plain weave fabrics made of cotton was investigated. An experimental device conceived around a magnetic suspension balance was used to regulate temperature at two levels (25°C and 35°C). Using the same proportions of mixed air, relative humidities can reach fixed values between 3% and 97%. Two successive cycles of continuous adsorption/desorption water vapor were used. The sorption isotherms of the ironed and non-ironed fabrics are compared. They define three sorption zones depending on the nature of links between structure and water vapor. The results show that the adsorption isotherm of the ironed fabrics is lower than the non-ironed one during the initial two zones of the sigmoid. Then, they are superposed in the last sector of the adsorption isotherm and during the entire desorption phase. Therefore, the ironing can reduce the sorption capacity of cotton at low and moderate relative humidities. A second adsorption/desorption cycle is performed on the same samples to prove that the ironing effect is completely cancelled.

Effect of Washing Conditions on Cleaning Action of Linear Alkylbenzene Sulfonate in Hard Water

Abstract The effects of water hardness on textile detergency in aqueous linear dodecylbenzene sulfonate (LAS) solutions were examined under various washing conditions. Plain-woven and towel cotton fabrics and plain-woven polyester fabric were soiled with a mixture of carbon black/oleic acid. The soiled fabrics were shake-washed in the LAS solution together with the original unsoiled fabrics. Surface reflectance measurements revealed that the soil removal and redeposition decreased and increased, respectively, with increasing water hardness. The identity of the mineral species (calcium or magnesium ions) in the hard water had no notable effect on the detergency. The addition of significant amounts of extra LAS did not fully compensate the reduction in detergency in hard water. Addition of softening agents and an alkali builder to the hard water limited the reduction in detergency, but the detergency was still lower than that in the absence of hardness salts. Moreover, a high wash temperature and repeated rinse procedure did not prevent the reduction in detergency in hard water. Finally, a washing test was carried out in hard water under the conditions considered to be effective for improving the detergent quality in hard water, based on the experimental results. The LAS detergency toward the cotton fabrics under these conditions was still poorer than that in the absence of hardness salts. We concluded that using soft wash water is the best choice for maximizing the cleaning power of detergents.

Investigation of electromagnetic shielding properties of boron, carbon and boron–carbon fibre hybrid woven fabrics and their polymer composites

The growth of the electronic industry and the widespread use of electronic equipment in communications, computations, automations, biomedicine, space and other purposes have led to many electromagnetic interference (EMI) problems as systems operate in close proximity. It is likely to become more severe in the future, unless proper EMI control methodology and techniques are used to meet the electromagnetic compatibility requirements. In recent years, electromagnetic (EM) waves in the 1–10 GHz range are broadly used in wireless communication tools and local area networks. In the future, the usable range of EM waves will tend to shift further to higher frequency regions with the development of information technology as well as electronic devices. As a consequence, the seriousness of problems such as EMI of electronic devices and health issues is ever rising. In this study, electromagnetic shielding effectiveness, absorbance and reflectance properties of the boron, carbon and boron–carbon plain woven fabrics and boron/polyester, carbon/polyester, and boron–carbon/polyester hybrid composites were investigated. Using a coaxial transmission line holder set-up, the (EMSE), reflectance and absorbance of various fabrics and composites were carried out in the frequency range from 15 to 3000 MHz.

Evaluation of the quality of clothing fabrics in terms of their compression behaviour before and after abrasion

In this work, the compression behaviour of clothing woven fabrics, before and after abrasion on the Martindale’s device, has been examined. Plain and 3/1 twill weave fabrics from cotton and cotton/polyester fiber blends served as experimental material. Compression behaviour of the investigated fabrics was analyzed taking the compressibility, thickness loss, and compressive resilience into consideration. Obtained results showed that the changes of compression properties are in a function of the structural parameters of tested fabrics, as well as damages caused by abrasion. Besides, the results of compressibility, thickness loss, and compressive resilience enabled establishing the quality of examined fabrics based on values of complex criterion. Calculated value of complex criterion pointed to the conclusion that abrasion causes the reduction of quality of tested fabrics in a small extent. Twill weave fabric made of cotton/polyester fiber blends is characterized by the best quality while cotton plain weave fabric has the worst quality, before as well as after abrasion.

Flammability, comfort and mechanical properties of a novel fabric structure: plant-structured fabric

Traditional flame retardant (FR) treatments may bring detrimental effects on comfort as well as mechanical properties for cotton fabrics. This study investigates whether a novel fabric structure—plant-structured fabric can improve fabric performance after FR treatment. Here, plant-structure fabrics were compared with conventional fabrics of similar weight and thickness. The results revealed plant-structured fabrics tended to retain a higher level of comfort properties than the conventional plain and twill weave fabrics on wettability, thermal conductivity, air resistance and fabric hand feel. Moreover, the tearing strength and tensile strength of the plant-structured fabrics are strongly associated with a higher level of flame resistance as evaluated by the 45° flammability test. This can be attributed to higher fabric sett, the presence of closed pores between the two layers and lower open pore volume at its face. The weave pattern of fabrics was observed through microscope and the thermal decomposition behaviour of fabrics was evaluated by thermal gravimetric analysis.

A general micromechanical model to predict elastic and strength properties of balanced plain weave fabric composites

In the present research, a micromechanical-analytical model was developed to predict the elastic properties and strength of balanced plain weave fabric composites. In this way, a new homogenization method has been developed by using a laminate analogy method for the balanced plain weave fabric composites. The proposed homogenization method is a multi-scale homogenization procedure. This model divides the representative volume element to several sub-elements, in a way that the combination of the sub-elements can be considered as a laminated composite. To determine the mechanical properties of laminates, instead of using an iso-strain assumption, the assumptions of constant in-plane strains and constant out-of-plane stress have been considered. The applied assumptions improve the accuracy of prediction of mechanical properties of balanced plain weave fabrics composites, especially the out-of-plane elastic properties. Also, the stress analysis for prediction of strain–stress behavior and strength has been implemented in a similar manner. In addition, the nonlinear mechanical behavior of balanced plain weave composite is studied by considering the inelastic mechanical behavior of its polymeric matrix. To assess the accuracy of the present model, the results were compared with available results in the literature. The results, including of engineering constants (elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio) and stress–strain behavior show the accuracy of the present model.

Resin impregnation behavior in carbon fiber reinforced polyamide 6 composite: Effects of yarn thickness, fabric lamination and sizing agent

In the present study, the effects of yarn thickness, fabric lamination (such as number of fabric plies) and sizing content on resin impregnation behavior in carbon fiber reinforced polyamide 6 composites were investigated. Micro-braided yarn (MBY) was fabricated using carbon fiber yarn consisted of 3000, 6000 and 12000 carbon fibers and polyamide 6 fiber yarn. Carbon fiber yarn with different sizing content was also used for MBY. Plain woven fabrics were made with MBY. Composite plates were compression-molded using the fabrics. Impregnation ratio was measured by surface observation of the cross-section of the composite. From the results, it is confirmed that the composites with dense fabrics inhibited fiber yarn flattening and restricted the influence of fabric lamination. Resin impregnation behavior was inhibited with sizing contents.

Characterization of nesting effects on compression processes for plain woven fabrics in composites manufacturing

Nesting and compression processes of plain woven fabrics are the most important features in the composites manufacture of fiber-reinforced composite components, while their relationships are still not reported. Here, in this work, we clearly reveal nesting and compression characteristics of typical fabrics through systematical compression experiments. We present the theoretical expression of the nesting effects on the initial thickness h and experimentally demonstrate its effectiveness. We find that nesting decreases the h and the minimum h appears in the maximum nesting condition. Meanwhile, we experimentally demonstrate that for plain woven fabrics, nesting has relationships with the thickness in compression t, while it has no effects on the thickness deformation Δ in the whole compression processes. Thus, we reveal the relationships between the nesting and h, t, Δ in the compression processes. Moreover, the applicability of these results for other types of fiber is also illustrated by comprehensive analysis. These obtained results provide the references for thickness evolution rules, volume fraction, and molding process of the fiber-reinforced composite components.

2D woven/ 3D orthogonal Woven Non-crimp E-glass Fabric as Reinforcement in Epoxy Composites using Vacuum Assisted Resin Infusion Molding

E-glass/Epoxy composites were fabricated using Vacuum Assisted Resin Infusion Moulding (VARIM) in fiber weight fractions of 40%, 45%, 50% and 55 percent. E-glass fiber in the form of 2D plain woven fabric of 320 gsm and 3D orthogonal woven non-crimp fabric with 1830 gsm were considered for reinforcement. Mechanical properties including tensile strength, flexural strength, impact strength and inter-laminar shear strength (ILSS) of both the composites were evaluated and compared to explore the possibility of 3D fabric as an alternative over the plain weave fabric. Improvement in mechanical properties was seen with increase in fiber content in both the composites. Results support the view that 3D orthogonal weave fabric can be used in lieu of plain weave fabric as it exhibited improved mechanical properties. Morphological studies were used to analyze the fracture mechanisms.

Effect of yarn structure on wicking and its impact on bloodstain pattern analysis (BPA) on woven cotton fabrics

Bloodstain pattern analysis (BPA) of bloodstains on hard, non-porous surfaces has found widespread use in crime scene analysis and reconstruction for violent crimes in which bloodshed occurs. At many violent crime scenes, bloody clothing is also found and may be analyzed. However, to date, there are no definitive methods for analyzing bloodstains on textiles, even for simple drip stains. There are two major classes of textiles used for apparel and household textiles, weaves and knits. In this article, drip stains on two 100% cotton plain weave fabrics representative of bed sheets are analyzed. Since it is common practice in the manufacture of bed sheeting to use different types of yarn in the warp and weft direction to reduce cost, custom weaves were made from yarns produced by each of the three most common staple yarn production techniques to control this variable. It was found that porcine blood wicked into the fabrics made with ring spun yarn, but not into those made with open end or vortex spun yarns. The uneven wicking of blood into the different yarns resulted in elliptical-shaped stains on commercial bed sheeting that can be misleading when performing bloodstain pattern interpretation based on the stain morphology. This surprising result demonstrates that it is not sufficient to analyze the structure of the fabric, but one must also characterize the yarns from which the fabric is made. This study highlights the importance of a deeper characterization of the textile structure, even down to the yarn level, for BPA on textiles.

Challenge problems for the benchmarking of micromechanics analysis: Level I initial results

Because of composite materials’ inherent heterogeneity, the field of micromechanics provides essential tools for understanding and analyzing composite materials and structures. Micromechanics serves two purposes: homogenization or prediction of effective properties and dehomogenization or recovery of local fields in the original heterogeneous microstructure. Many micromechanical tools have been developed and codified, including commercially available software packages that offer micromechanical analyses as stand-alone tools or as part of an analysis chain. With the increasing number of tools available, the practitioner must determine which tool(s) provides the most value for the problem at hand given budget, time, and resource constraints. To date, simple benchmarking examples have been developed in an attempt to address this challenge. The present paper presents the benchmark cases and results from the Micromechanical Simulation Challenge hosted by the Composites Design and Manufacturing HUB. The challenge is a series of comprehensive benchmarking exercises in the field of micromechanics against which such tools can be compared. The Level I challenge problems consist of six microstructure cases, including aligned, continuous fibers in a matrix, with and without an interphase; a cross-ply laminate; spherical inclusions; a plain-weave fabric; and a short-fiber microstructure with “random” fiber orientation. In the present phase of the simulation challenge, the material constitutive relations are restricted to linear thermoelastic. Partial results from DIGIMAT-MF, ESI VPS, MAC/GMC, finite volume direct averaging method, Altair MDS, SwiftComp, and 3D finite element analysis are reported. As the challenge is intended to be ongoing, the full results are hosted and updated online at www.cdmHUB.org .

Functionalization and characterization of cotton with phase change materials and thyme oil encapsulated in beta-cyclodextrins

Abstract The aim of this work was to study the production of comfortable cotton plain-weave fabrics with antibacterial and antifungal characteristics through a simple finishing process, which consists in applying microcapsules of phase change materials (mPCM), monochlorotriazinyl-β-cyclodextrin (MCT-β-CD) and thyme oil. The fabrics were characterized by Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Contact Angle and Infrared Thermography. The thyme oil release was also analyzed, as well as the antibacterial and antifungal activity. The materials treated with 20 μL/mL of thyme oil have shown anomalous oil release mechanisms, according to the Korsmeyer-Peppas model, and activity against Staphylococcus aureus , Escherichia coli , Trichophyton rubrum , Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans . Therefore, it was reached the conclusion that mPCM, conjugated with thyme oil encapsulated in MCT-β-CD, proved to be an interesting option to produce materials possessing thermoregulation properties with putative clinical relevance for the prevention of infections, particularly dermatophytosis.

On the mechanical response of 2D plain woven and 3D angle-interlock fabrics

Abstract The present study compared the tensile and low velocity impact (LVI) response of Kevlar/basalt fabrics. Homogeneous and hybrid fabrics with structures of two dimensional plain woven (2D-P) and three dimensional angle-interlock (3D-A) were woven with Kevlar and basalt yarns. Interlacing of brittle basalt yarns with high-ductility/high-toughness Kevlar yarns enhanced the tensile strength of 2D-P fabrics by 5.39–50.29% and 3D-A fabrics by 14.80%. Similarly hybridization enhanced the energy absorption of 2D-P fabrics by 8.58–37.71% and 3D-A fabrics by 13.45–20.14%. Change in the architecture from 2D-P to 3D-A also enhanced the tensile and impact resistance of fabrics. Different failure modes induced due to tensile and LVI loads were identified.