Experimental studies and analysis of the draping of woven fabrics

This study investigates and compares the draping and forming of four types of woven fabrics, namely a loose plain weave (basket weave), a tight plain weave, a satin and a twill weave. The fabrics were draped over a hat mould consisting of a hemispherical dome surrounded by a Aat base. The draping of each fabric was examined in terms of wrinkle formation, boundary profile o f the draped fabric, distribution of fibre orientation and local shear angl es. A theoretical analysis of the experimental results involved the calcula tion of the distributions of the fibre volume fraction and mechanical prope rties, in terms of components of the reduced stiffness matrix, from the exp erimental data of local shear angles. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Scienc e Ltd.