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TENSILE PROPERTIES OF FIBRES

INTRODUCTION
The tensile properties of textile fibres (fibre strength and elongation) are very important from the
point of view of their behavior during processing and the properties of the final product.
Generally, the fibre strength is the maximum load / force / tension that it can sustain before it
breaks. The simplest way to study the fibre strength is to apply a gradually increasing load to a
fibre and measure the load and elongation at the time the fibre breaks. Increasing loads at
various stages and corresponding elongation can be recorded; a load elongation graph can be
constructed as shown below:

Terms related to Tensile Properties:

Load: Load is the force applied either by dead weight or by any other means to a specimen in
the direction of its axis. The load causes tension to be developed into the material (fibre/yarn).
The load is generally expressed in terms of gm weight (gravitational unit of force) in case of a
dead weight or in terms of Newton (N) or Centi-Newton (cN) in case other types of load
applications.
1. Breaking load: The load at which the specimen breaks is called the breaking load.
2. Stress: To compare the tensile properties of different types of fibres independently or the
direct effect of their dimensions, in place of load, stress is used. Stress is defined as the
load or force acting per unit cross section area of the material.
Stress =

Load /(Force)
Area of Crosssection

The units of stress may be g/cm2 or Newton/m2 (Pascal) or dynes/cm2

3. Mass Stress: The cross sections of many fibres and fibre structures are irregular in shape
and difficult to measure. To simplify the matter a dimension related to cross-section is
used. The linear density is such a dimension. The linear density may be expressed in
denier or tex count and the mass stress then becomes the ratio of the force applied to the
linear density (mass per unit length).
Mass Stress=

Force Applied
Linear density

The unit of mass stress therefore becomes grams weight per denier or grams weight per
tex. Here again abbreviations are used (g/denier or g/tex).
4. Tenacity or the Specific Strength: The tenacity of a material is defined as the mass stress
at break. The units are same as those of mass stress i.e. g/tex, g/den. An alternative term
for tenacity is specific strength.
5. Breaking Length: The breaking length is the length of the specimen which will just break
under its own weight when hung vertically. Naturally we do not build tall towers in order
to measure this breaking length but calculate it from the results of tests or short lengths.
The expression of strength in terms of breaking length is useful for comparing the
strength of different fibre structures e.g. for comparing single fibre strength with the yarn
strength. The unit of breaking length is kilometers. The other unit for breaking length is
RKM. RKM stands for Reiss Kilometre in German and Resistance Kilometrique in
French. RKM means kilometers of yarn for break.
6. Strain: When a load is applied to a linear specimen such as fibre or yarn the specimen
stretches or elongates. The amount of this elongation will vary with original length of the
specimen. The strain is the term used to relate the elongation with initial length.
Strain=

Elongation
Initial length

7. Extension : Extension is the strain expressed as a percentage

Extension=

Elongation
x 100
Initial length

The extension is sometimes referred as strain percent.

8. Breaking extension: The breaking extension is the extension of the specimens at the
breaking point.

9. Load Elongation Curve: An extremely important curve is produced when the load on a
specimen is plotted against the elongation. This curve describes the behavior of a
specimen from zero load and elongation up to breaking point.
From a close study of this curve very important information can be obtained such as
initial youngs modulus, work of rupture, yield point etc.

Stress strain curve of viscose derived from a load extension

curve of a 300 denier yarn in approximate standard atmosphere
The textile fibres differ from metals in that, metals are crystalline materials while the
fibres are visco-elastic. The load elongation curve of fibres is therefore somewhat
different. The load elongation curve of purely elastic materials like metals would be a
straight-line while the load-elongation of most of the fibres shows a straight line in the
initial part up to small stresses. However, as the stress is increased further, the stress
strain curve bends sharply and large extensions are produced by small stresses. A sort of
plastic flow of material occurs. Since different fibre materials have different molecular
structures their stress strain curves will be different.
10. Initial Youngs modulus: A particularly important part of the stress strain curve is the
initial portion starting at zero stress and strain. From the Fig. it can be seen that this
initial part is fairly straight, indicating a linear relationship between stress and strain. In
other words, material in this portion behaves like an elastic material and obeys Hookes
law. This part of the curve is sometimes referred as Hookean region. The significance of
this portion is that when the load is removed the material recovers its original length or
very nearly so.
The tangent of the angle between the initial part of the curve and the horizontal (x axis) is
the ratio stress/strain. This ratio is defined as initial Youngs modulus and it describes the
initial resistance to extension of the material.
If the stress unit is grams/denier, the initial Youngs modulus will also have the same unit
as the strain has no units.
11. Yield Point: After the initial straight path the curve bends towards right and beyond this
bending point, the material no longer behaves as elastic material. Larger extensions are

produced by relatively smaller increase in stress and most of this stretch is irrecoverable.
This bending or yield region is located by the yield point; which is determined
geometrically. The point at which, the tangent to the curve is parallel to the line joining
the origin and the breaking point is taken as the yield point.
The yield point can be defined in terms of yield strain or stress. Alternative terms for
yield point are limit of proportionality and elastic limit.
12. The Work of rupture: This is a measure of toughness of the material (see Fig. below).

The work of rupture and work factor: (a) Work of rupture = area OAB;
(b) Work factor > ; (c) Work factor <
Work of rupture is the energy or work required to break the material. The area under the
load elongation curve represents the work done in stretching the specimen to breaking
point and therefore the units of the work of rupture will be the units of work e.g. gram
centimeters.

Work of rupture
If we consider a fibre under load F, increasing its length by an amount dl, we have
Work done = force x displacement = F x dl

Hence the total work done in breaking the fibre

break

= work of rupture =

F x dl

= area under the load elongation curve

Specific work of rupture: The work of rupture is proportional to the cross-section of the fibre
and to its length. Therefore to compare different materials a term specific work of rupture is
used.
Work of rupture
Specific work of rupture =
( mass/unit length ) x initial length

The units of specific work of rupture can be derived as follows.

Specific work of rupture =

Work (energy)
mass/length x length

Force x length
mass/length x length

Force
mass/length
= Nm / kg (SI system)
= N / tex
Direct
N / denier
system
13. Work Factor : If the fibre had obeyed Hooks law the load elongation curve would be a
straight line and the work of rupture would be given by :
Work of rupture = (breaking load x breaking elongation)
The actual curve differs from this ideal curve. It is therefore, convenient to define a
quantity the work factor to show the difference from the ideal state.
T h e work factor=

Work of rupture
breaking load x breaking extension

Work factor
In the ideal state the work factor will be 0.5. If the load elongation curve lies mainly
above the straight line, the work factor is more than 0.5 and it below the straight line,
work factor is less than 0.5.
14. Elastic recovery: Elastic recovery may be defined as that property of a body by which it
tends to recover to its original size and shape after deformation. The power of recovery
from a given extension may be expressed by the term elastic recovery value.
Elastic recovery =

Elastic extension
Total extension

For example:

Elastic recovery
If the original specimen length was AB and this has been stretched to a length AD. The
total extension is BD. After removal of the load the length may become AC. The length
CD is thus the elastic extension.
Therefore,
CD
Elastic recovery =
BD
Perfectly elastic materials have an elastic recovery of 1.0.while materials without any
power of recovery (plastic or viscous material) will have a recovery of 0. The fibres will

have a value of elastic recovery between 0 to 1.The elastic recovery can also be expressed
as percentage.
Elastic recovery values are affected by several factors such as time allowed for
recovery, the moisture in the specimen, and the total extension used in the test.
Therefore, in order to make comparison between the different materials it is necessary to
specify the conditions under which the elastic recovery is determined.
Stress-strain curves
Comparison of the two stress-strain curves in the figure below would result in conclusions
similar to the following:
Fiber A is stronger than fiber B and should be able to carry more load - the tenacity of fiber A is
greater than the tenacity of fiber B.
Fiber A is stiffer than fiber B and should be more resistant to initial deformation - the modulus
(slope of the curve) of fiber A is greater than the modulus of fiber B.
Fiber B is more extensible than fiber A and should absorb large deformations more readily - the
extension to break is greater for fiber B than for fiber A.
The fibers appear to be equivalent in energy-absorbing capacity, but fiber B would probably be a
better candidate for seat belt webbing; the area under both curves appear to be equal, but fiber B
is more extensible.
Fiber A is more elastic than fiber B - the yield point in curve A is more pronounced than the yield
point in curve B.
Figure: Stress-Strain Curves Comparison