Measuring Technology of the Anisotropic Tensile Properties of Woven Fabrics

A new creditable and effective multiaxial circular tensile tester (MACTT) with 16 load sensors installed around a circumference has been developed. The new tester could be used to measure tensile properties in various directions with one sample simultaneously under the same initial conditions. As a result, not only an error could be reduced, but also the experiment samples and time could be saved. The experimental results showed good agreement with the theoretical approximate values calculated based on Hooke's Law. We also compared the stress distributions obtained by the new tester with those tested by the Kawabata's Evaluation System (KES) instrument and the results confirmed that the new tester was theoretically reasonable and practically feasible for measuring orthotropic tensile properties of the fabrics with symmetrical structures, and that the new tester could also be used to test and evaluate the anisotropic tensile properties of fabrics with no orthogonal main axes.