EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY OF BIAXIAL MECHANICAL- BEHAVIOR IN FABRICS

The mechanical behaviour of fabrics is studied lasing biaxial tensile tests. A mechanism prescribes strains to cross specimens with differen t relations between weft and warp directions. This experiment is well suited to fabrics accounting for their lack of shear stiffness. It all ows us to appreciate the influence of the weaving geometry on the glob al fabric behaviour. The geometrical non-linearities at the mesh level induced by the undulation variations lead to a non-linearity of behav iour of the fabric. This phenomenon is basically biaxial accounting fo r the interactions of warp and weft yarns. The test procedure is detai led especially optical measurement of the strains and the initial slat e definition. A macroscopic model is proposed, identified and validate d from experimental data.