Analysis of the mechanical response of a woven polymeric fabric with locally induced damage

•Nylon 66 is damaged by ultraviolet light exposure.•A nylon/polyester fabric is tested in tension in the virgin and in the damaged state.•The constitutive model of the fabric is implemented in FE code.•The bias extension test is used to validate the FE-based material modeling.•Local damage due to UV light exposure is determined.

Local variation of appearance and degradation of mechanical properties affect the performance of textile polymeric materials. In this paper controlled ultraviolet light exposure is used to degrade a nylon66/polyester fabric. Preliminary tensile tests quantify the influence of exposure time on the mechanical response of the material and are used to define constitutive laws of the unexposed and exposed materials. Such constitutive laws of the fabric are implemented within a finite element code. The role of local degradation on the bias extension test is investigated computationally with the macroscopic approach and experimentally using image processing and digital image correlation. The experimental test results apparently support the FEM modeling approach and results.