Influences of fabric density on mechanical and moulding behaviours of 3D warp interlock para-aramid fabrics for soft body armour application

For the past many decades' enormous research has been done on mechanical and moulding properties of 2D woven and non-woven fabrics. The current paper presents a comprehensive investigation of the tensile, bending and moulding behaviours of 3D orthogonal warp interlock fabrics with different fabric densities. Four 3D warp interlock fabrics with different areal density made from 168Tex linear density p-aramid Kevlar yarn were manufactured on dobby loom in GEMTEX laboratory. Based on the investigation both fabric density and yarn density shows a significant effect on bending and tensile properties of the fabrics. The bending rigidity in the warp and weft directions become higher in preforms with denser weft and warp yarn densities respectively. In general, as the yarn density in the respective warp or/and weft direction increases, the maximum tensile load with maximum strain increases. Moreover, the fabric and yarn density has also shown a great impact on various mouldability characteristics of 3D warp interlock preforms while deformation. The study finally elucidated that, like other parameters, fabric and the yarn density of 3D warp interlock influenced greatly the tensile, bending and moulding properties where those parameters should be considered carefully while applying in various technical textile applications i.e., soft body armour.