Mechanical behavior of irregular fibers Part I: Modeling the tensile behavior of linear elastic fibers

Fiber irregularities are inherent to textile fibers, particularly natural f ibers. This series of papers examines the impact of fiber irregularity on t he mechanical behavior of textile fibers. Part I examines the effect of fib er dimensional irregularities on the tensile behavior of linear elastic fib ers using the finite element method. Fiber dimensional irregularities are s imulated with sine waves of different magnitude and frequency. The results indicate that increasing the level or magnitude of irregularity will decrea se the breaking load, breaking elongation, and method Young's modulus of th e fiber, while increasing the frequency of irregularity will decrease the b reaking load and method Young's modulus, but the breaking elongation will i ncrease. Fiber dimensional irregularity and the gauge length effect are als o simulated in this study.