Influence of properties at micro- and meso-scopic levels on macroscopic level for weft knitted fabrics

Knitted fabrics and particularly weft knitted fabrics are used as composite material reinforcements due to their ability to be draped and to give three-dimensional shape by molding or by knitting. This paper presents the strong connection of all the scales of the knitted fabric (fiber, yarn and fabric) on the final knitted fabrics and its mechanical and physical properties. For this purpose, only one polymer material is used, made of two different fibers in terms of length and fineness. These fibers are used to make different yarns with two structures then three plain-weft-knitted-fabrics are considered in terms of the loop length. The fibers have not the same bending rigidity because fiber cross-section areas are different. This has an influence on the three-dimensional loop shape and on the roughness, thickness and real area of contact of fabrics. This phenomenon is the same with the two yarn structures. The results presented here bring into light that the loop length does not influence the fabric thickness. (C) 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers.