The formation and performance of auxetic textiles. Part I: theoretical and technical considerations

Abstract

Auxetic textiles belong to a class of extraordinary materials that become fatter when stretched. Sustained efforts to fabricate auxetic fabric structures are limited. Indeed, several geometrical configurations have been previously proposed but none has been engineered into functional auxetic textile fabrics. The use of auxetic materials has been limited because of problems with deploying them in their fabricated forms. Our thrust in this research is to combine our knowledge of geometry and fabric structural characteristics to engineer auxetic textiles and to determine the properties of such auxetic textile fabrics. In this paper, we have presented the technique we developed for producing several knit structures in which filling yarn inlays are used to effect compound repeating units. In these productions, the chain is used as a base structure and a minimum of two guide bars and maximum of six guide bars are deployed to produce such warp knit auxetic fabrics.

Keywords:

• auxetic textiles
• negative Poisson's ratio
• warp knitting
• fabric geometry
• structural properties

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the funds received from the National Textile Center under the US Department of Commerce Grant 02–07400 in support of this research.