Influence of bias angle of stitching on tensile characteristics of lapped seam parachute canopy fabric – Part II: Study on optimized test specimen dimension

The influence of bias angle of stitching on tensile characteristics of lapped seam parachute canopy fabric has been studied based on proposed test specimen dimension as reported in Part I of this paper. Test results obtained using the postulated test specimen dimension exhibit reliable tensile properties of canopy fabrics. It is also therefore possible for comparative analysis of tensile strength and elongation of unseamed and seamed fabric at different bias angle. During comparative analysis, the data obtained from the previous test dimension (as mentioned in Part I of this paper) and new test dimension show that there is significantly large difference in absolute values of tensile data obtained by these two methods. The trend of breaking elongation is same in both the cases, but the trend of tensile strength is somewhat different with these two dimensions. Besides these, the absolute values of tensile data obtained through proposed specimen dimension are found to be realistic as compared to the results based on previous test dimension.