Abstract
The tensile behaviour dependency on the process parameters of blended nonwoven fabric is highly non-linear. This paper explores the potentiality of fuzzy logic inference in such a nonlinear environment as predictive process modelling with minimal experimental data. A model based on fuzzy inference engine has been attempted using recycled polyester fibre blend percentage, needling density and depth of needle penetration as the input variables and tensile strength in both machine direction (MD) and cross direction (CD) as the output variables. Proposed model was built in MAT LAB/Simulink and has been verified by experimental sample data set. Mean relative error percentage and correlation coefficient between the fuzzy model predicted and actual experimental sample values were found to be around ±2.5% and up to 0.97 respectively. These results validate that the model may be applied with high accuracies for the prediction of tensile behaviour of the blended nonwoven fabric in the textile industries.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.