EFFECT OF FABRIC MECHANICAL-PROPERTIES ON DRAPE

We investigate the relationship between the fabric drape coefficient f rom the Cusick drapemeter and mechanical properties tested on the Kawa bata Evaluation System for Fabrics (KES-F) for woven fabrics. This is the first attempt at determining a comprehensive relationship between the fabric drape coefficient and mechanical properties. Drape coeffici ent (DC) is the dependent variable. Sixteen mechanical properties test ed on the KES-F system and their transformed forms are the independent variables. Four regression models are proposed: the multiple linear r egression of the DC with KES-F original data, Niwa's model, logarithms for KES-F data, and logarithms for both the DC and KES-F data. Except for an initial run with Niwa's model, the mechanical properties corre lated to drape coefficient are reduced to three or four by screening o ut intercorrelated parameters using stepwise regression. The regressio n results are analyzed in terms of correlation coefficients, residuals , and T values. The version with logarithms for mechanical properties and drape coefficient seems to be more accurate. We know that bending and shear properties are close related to drape coefficient, and this analysis shows that two other parameters-mean deviation of friction co efficient and tensile linearity-are also highly correlated with drape coefficient and may be independent.