Studies on torsional rigidity of mulberry and non-mulberry silks

Abstract

The ability of silk yarns to take up twist without deterioration has been studied in terms of breaking twist angle. The study has brought to focus certain important aspects with regard to the torsional rigidity and the brittleness of silk yarns. It is observed that the brittleness of bivoltine is significantly higher than that of multibivoltine. The denier of raw silk has a significant bearing on its brittleness. Coarser deniers exhibit higher brittleness in the case of both multibivoltine and bivoltine. It is also observed that the brittleness of non-mulberry silk is significantly different from that of mulberry silk for a given denier. Muga has the lowest brittleness, tasar is next lower and mulberry raw silk has the highest brittleness. Thus, non-mulberry silks have a better ability to take twists without being affected.