Relationship between tensile properties of fibres and nonwoven fabrics

Abstract

<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif""="">The stress-strain behaviour of spunbonded needle-punched fabric, spun bonded heat-sealed fabric and staple fibre needle- punched fabric has been studied using wide-width tensile test method. The stress-strain behaviour of constituent fibres of these fabrics has also been studied and the structural parameters of nonwoven fabrics evaluated as these are the main two factors which influence the mechanical properties of nonwoven fabrics. The fibre network theory has been used to predict the stress-strain behaviour of fabric using the fibre data and structural parameters of nonwoven fabrics. <span style="font-size:14.5pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;font-family:" arial","sans-serif""="">It <span style="font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt;font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif""="">is observed that there is good agreement between theoretical and experimental values in case of heat-sealed spunbonded nonwoven fabric. In case of needle-punched fabrics, the stress-strain curve of the staple fibre fabric shows major deviation from the experimental curve while the stress-strain curves for spunbonded needle-punched fabrics show substantial deviation from the experimental curves. The slippage of fibres is a dominating factor in the deformation of needle-punched nonwoven fabrics in general and staple fibre fabrics in particular and hence both the modulus and breaking stress are found to be much lower than the theoretical values. The structure of nonwoven fabrics is the most important factor affecting the tensile behaviour of these fabrics.

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