Theoretical Determination of the Mechanical Response of Spun-bonded Nonwovens

Abstract

A new theory is presented to predict the tensile behaviour of spun-bonded nonwoven fabrics from the knowledge of the stress–strain behaviour of its constituent fibers, their orientation angle distribution, the fabric's Poisson's ratio and their shear strains. A comparison of the predicted stress–strain curves and experimental results of two commercially available fabrics is made in two principle directions. The theory is shown to work very well for the fabrics under study. Theoretical curves are presented by using Poisson's ratio values calculated from methods based on biaxial and uniaxial testing. A comparison of two methods is described.