Effect of Woven Fabric Anisotropy on Drape Behaviour

Abstract

Woven fabrics are well known for their property – direction dependence or property anisotropy, which presents a problem of irregularities in the drape profile depending on the different stiffness of fabrics in different directions. The aim of our work is to evaluate and to predict bending rigidity in different directions of tested samples. Shear rigidity was not considered. Bending length was measured and bending rigidity was calculated in twelve different directions in order to get polar diagrams that represent anisotropy level of woven fabrics due to bending rigidity. Measured values have been compared with the Cooper’s theoretical model. According to this method three measurements, i. e. in warp, weft and in bias direction are sufficient to define the value of bending rigidity of specimen cut at any angle α to the warp direction. Draped circular specimens were captured with digital photo camera in order to obtain the drape profiles. Distances to the edge of draped fabric profile in twenty-four different directions were measured in order to get polar diagrams comparable with polar diagrams of bending rigidity. It was found that experimental results of bending rigidity in different directions are close to the values calculated from Cooper’s model and this model is reliable to predict drape profile of lightweight woven fabrics.