Finite Element Analyses Of Woven Fabrics Tearing Damage

The tearing damage of woven fabric is an important mechanical behavior during service life, especially for the industrial application. During the tongue tearing test, the fabric is mainly damaged by the tensile breakage of the unloading yarns. The whole tearing process can be divided into three steps: the straightening of the loading yarns, the transverse slippage of the unloading yarns and shear, tensile failure of the unloading yarns. This thesis will report the tearing damage shapes and mechanisms of woven fabric from experimental and finite element analysis (FEA).In experimental, two kinds of plain-woven fabrics and three kinds of twill-woven fabrics were selected for the tongue-tear tests. The tearing damages and tearing load-displacement curves were obtained for analyzing the tearing damage mechanisms. A commercial FEA software ABAQUS was employed for the numerical investigation of tearing damage. The tearing damage process, stress wave propagation, formation and progressive evolution of tearing delta area were visually displayed for unveiling the tearing damage mechanisms. The tearing damage morphologies and tearing load-displacement curves were calculated and compared with those in experiment. The fabric structure parameters were taken into consideration in the tearing damage analysis. Good agreements between experiment and FEA were found.From the FEA investigation, the tearing damages were visually displayed. From such investigation, the load conditions of yarns and fabrics during the tearing damage process can be found for the elucidation of tearing damage mechanisms in tongue-tear test. We hope such an effort could be extended to the design and manufacturing of high tearing strength woven fabrics.