Analysis of woven fabric behavior under punching force

In several applications, the industrial and protective fabrics might be subjected to punching by the rigid sharp spikes. Fabric resistance to the penetration of the puncher at a constant rate was studied. The analysis of the factors influencing the resistance of the fabric and an explanation of the puncture mechanism were generated. Punching force-displacement curves were obtained and four noticeable fabric failure modes were observed. A special setup was designed so that the fabric sample can be subjected to the biaxial stresses during the puncture tests. This paper studies the puncture behaviors of the plain, twill 1/3, and twill 2/2 woven fabric designs. It was found that the increase in the number of fabric layers from one to three and the number of picks/cm from 17.6 to 27.2 would elevate the punching resistance and the punching energy by 354% and 333%, respectively, with the insignificant change in the values of specific punching force and energy. Plain weave design proved to have higher values than twill design. A high correlation was observed between fabric tensile strength, fabric Young’s modulus, fabric failure energy and its punching force and punching energy.