Influence of Crimp and Inter-Yarn Friction on the Mechanical Properties of Woven Fabric under Uniaxial/Biaxial Tensile Loading

In the present research, a physical-geometric-feature of continuous yarn in a plain woven fabric was created and its FE model was analysed by considering the two key issues of woven fabric, the crimp and inter-yarn friction. The basic parameters of Young’s modulus of single yarn and the inter-yarn friction coefficient were investigated for practical fabrics in tensile and pull-out tests. FE analysis indicated that the stress-strain curves of the FE model were effective in evaluating the equivalent modulus of a woven fabric by comparing with a tensile experiment on Twaron CT® Plain Woven Fabric. In addition, a simplified three dimensional model of the unit cell of plain woven fabric (UCPW) was employed to quantitively investigate two important fabric characteristics – the crimp rate of the yarn and inter-yarn friction-to determine their influence on the mechanical properties of the fabrics. Furthermore, we used FE analysis to evaluate how the crimp rate and inter-yarn friction affected the mechanical properties by determining the equivalent modulus of single yarn and UCPW in both uniaxial and biaxial tensile loading. The stresses at representative nodal points and the mechanical interaction between yarns were also investigated from a microscopic perspective, and their deformation mechanisms were also analysed and discussed.