Experimental and theoretical analysis of air-inflated circular woven fabric deformation

Abstract

In this study, a bulge tester is designed and constructed in order to simulate air-inflated fabric deformations. The shadow moiré method is used to analyze and reconstruct the 3-D profile of the deformed fabric. To verify the results of the shadow moiré method, front view photography is performed. Theoretical modeling of fabric deformation is carried out through uniform pressure and energy methods. The experimental results showed that the fabric deformation decreases as the angular distance from warp and weft directions increases. The fabric deformation increases nonlinearly with the air pressure in which the fabric with a higher density exhibits a slightly lower deformation. Theoretical results showed good agreement with the experimental results.

Keywords:

• Air inflated
• woven fabric
• shadow moiré
• 3-D reconstruction
• membrane theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.