Fabric Bending and Drape Based on Objective Measurement

There has been much discussion in the literature about the relationship between fabric “handle” and objective instrumental measurements of fabric low stress mechanical and surface properties such as fabric tensile properties, shear, bending, lateral compression, surface friction and surface roughness. But fabric “handle” is not really an inherent fabric property, rather it is a description of one of the ways in which people generally make a subjective assessment of some of the quality attributes of apparel fabrics, designed for particular end‐use applications. In contrast, fabric drape is an inherent mechanical property of a fabric. Fabric drape is that unique property which quantifies the ability of a fabric to bend simultaneously in more than one plane. In order to exhibit the property of drape, fabrics must be able to bend and shear simultaneously, thus distinguishing textile materials from paper or thin polymer films. Develops a fundamental mechanical analysis of fabrics bending under their own weight. The equations governing the shape of an elastic fabric cantilever are solved numerically. Discusses the implications for experimental measurement of fabric bending length and fabric bending rigidity in terms of these numerical solutions with negligibly small errors. Graphically presents profiles of the draped fabric cantilever. Makes a comparison of the numerical solutions with the approximate formulae derived by F.T. Peirce.