Abstract
When strain is applied constantly, there is a decreased stress with time in viscoelastic materials, which is called stress relaxation. During the manufacture and application of clothing and footwear, materials experience various long-lasting deformations, and relaxation process in materials arises. Thus, with theoretical and experimental study of the factors affecting stress relaxation, the ability to design and produce appropriate clothes will be increased. In the first part of this research, we studied the stress relaxation behavior of warp-knitted structures which have longer underlaps in back bar (reverse locknit, three- and four-needle sharkskin, and queens’ cord). Following the previous research, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of fabric structure, strain percentage, and course density on the stress and stress relaxation of the warp-knitted structures which have longer underlaps in front bar (locknit, three- and four-needle satin, and loop raised). The results reveal that the fabric structure, strain value, and fabric density are important factors affecting the stress and stress relaxation percent of the fabrics. By increasing the strain and the length of underlap in the front guide bar, stress and stress relaxation percent will be increased. Also, fabrics with higher course density show higher stress and stress relaxation percent. Among the mechanical models used to describe the stress relaxation behavior of the fabrics, the three-component Maxwell’s model with parallel-connect nonlinear spring showed the best agreement with the experimental stress relaxation curves of the analyzed fabrics.
Acknowledgement
The authors thank from the Center of Excellence of New Method of Identifications in Textile (CENMIT) for their academic support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.