Structural and Mechanical Properties of Woven Fabrics Employing Peirce's Model

Abstract

Peirce's model is newly studied to predict the structural and mechanical properties of woven fabrics. The study concerns various fabric structures made from different yarns of cotton, wool, and polyester, and weave structures of plain, twill, satin, and mat. Weave structures and fabric relaxation cause changes in the yam diameter and fabric crimp. Therefore, the diameters of warp and weft yams in Peirce's model are newly defined to determine effective yarn diameters. When the modified diameters are used to predict the structural and mechanical properties of the fabric, the predicted values show excellent agreement with the measured ones. The more relaxed the fabrics are, the more applicable is Peirce's model to predicting fabric thickness and tensile behavior.