Experimental method for biaxial tensile strength of fabrics and preliminary investigations

Abstract

This paper presents a novel experimental approach to determine the biaxial strength of fabrics. A double-layer cruciform specimen was proposed based on the improvement of previous test specimen. The design and manufacture process of the novel specimen was described in detail. Uniaxial and biaxial tests of a specific material were performed subsequently. Based on numerical simulation, the biaxial strength of the fabrics was preliminary investigated. And the correlation between uniaxial and biaxial strength of the material was discussed. The proposed experiments could characterize the biaxial strength of fabrics, and the biaxial strength of the fabrics at 1:1 tension is higher than the weft strength and little lower than the warp strength.