Factors Affecting the Tearing Resistance of Textile Structures

Resistance to tearing plays a major role when evaluating the reliability of textiles used for example in protective clothing [1] and in composite materials [2]. Tearing in textile structures proceeds through the formation and propagation of a Del zone ahead of the crack. It arises from the stretching and slippage of longitudinal yarns along transverse yarns followed by the stretching and alignment of the transverse yarns [3]. Rupture takes place when the transverse yarns reach their maximum tensile strength. An additional phenomenon has recently been shown to occur: the slippage of transverse yarns along the longitudinal yarns [4]. It was associated with a decrease in the tearing energy. In order to characterize the resistance to tearing of textile structures, a new criterion inspired from fracture mechanics and based on the tearing energy has been proposed [4]. The tearing energy G is provided by the expanded work ΔW necessary to increase the fracture surface area by ΔA according to the following relation: