TEXTILE FIBERS

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TEXTILE FIBERS
Dr. Md. Rezaul Karim Sheikh
Professor
ACCE, RU
Email: rksheikh@yahoo.com

Edited By: Md. Parbhez

Contents

Specific features of Textile Fibres

Classification
Chemical Constituents of some important fibres
Physical Properties
Chemical Properties
Moisture relations and Chemical reactions

Introduction

We all know that food, clothing and home are the three basic needs of life.
We eat food to survive and protect yourself from diseases,
We need a house to live in.
Why do we wear clothes?
We wear clothes for protection against climate, for modesty and beauty, and also to
show status. The material that you use for clothing is called fabric.

Textile fibres and Specific features

Fibre: A fibre is a hair like strand from which all fabrics are made.
It is defined as one of the delicate, hair portions of the tissues of a plant or animal
or other substances that are very small in diameter in relation to there length.
A fiber is a material which is several hundred times as long as its thick.
Fibres have been defined by the Textile Institute as units of matter characterized
by :
o Flexibility,
o Fineness
o high ratio of length to thickness. (at least 1000:1)
Minimum length: 12.5 mm, desirable: >20 mm.
Strong enough to be processed
Basic structural unit of all textile products- tiny hair like.
All fibers have their own characteristics and properties, depending upon their source,
chemical composition, and quality
No fiber is perfect. Each has some good, fair, and poor qualities that may make it
suitable or unsuitable for certain uses.
The basic characteristics of a fiber can be slightly altered but never totally changed.
The fiber may be short, long, straight, or curly.

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These fiber characteristics greatly affect the appearance, and performance of the
fabrics they are made into.
Thus an understanding of fibers, yarns, and fabrics if basic to the study of apparel.
Textile fiber has some characteristics which differ between fiber to Textile fiber.
Yarn formed by a continuous strand of fibers usually twisted together .
Textile fiber can be spun into a yarn or made into a fabric by various methods
including weaving, knitting, braiding, felting, and twisting.
The essential requirements for fibers to be spun into yarn include a length of at least 5
millimeters, flexibility, cohesiveness, and sufficient strength.
Ordinary textile fibres must be, at least partly, elastic up to breaking extensions
between 5 and 50%.
Other important properties include elasticity, fineness, uniformity, durability, and
luster.
Banana fiber is one kind of fiber but it is not a textile fiber. Because it can not fill up
the above properties. So we can say that all fiber are not textile fiber.

A. Natural Fibres: Originate from natural sources

1. Plant fibres (made of cellulose):
a. Bast or Skin fibres: Bast fibers are those that grow in the stems of plants.
Examples: Jute, Linen (Flax), Hemp; Kenaf, Ramie etc.
b. Leaf fibres: Abaca, Caroa, Istle, Sisal and Henequen.
c. Seeds fibres: Cotton, Coir, Kapok
2. Animal fibres (made of proteins):
a. Silk is obtained from cocoons made by the larvae of the silkworm.
b. Wool is the fiber derived from the fur or hair of animals, mainly sheep's
hair.
c. Mohair is a silk-like fabric or yarn made from the hair of the Angora goat.
d. Leather from animal skins.
3. Mineral sources: fibers
a. Fiberglass a fibrous form of glass
b. Asbestos a crystalline structure

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B. Man-made Fibers
1. Semi synthetic: Rayon (Re-generated cellulose), Lyocell (Tencel), Rayon
2. Purely synthetic: Polyester, Nylon, Acrylic

Chemical Composition of some important Textile Fibres

Chemical Composition of Silk Fiber
Silk is a natural textile fiber and it is collected from the insects named silkworm.
The silk warm is the caterpillar of a small off white moth belonging to the species
Bombyx mori. The fiber which is collected from the insects that is required to treat
before fabric production. Different types of impurities are contained in the raw silk.
Chemical Composition of Silk Fiber: Various types of chemical components are composed in
the chemical structure of the silk fiber. Here, I have presented a chemical composition of raw
silk fiber.
Fibroin
Ash of Silk Fibroin
Sericin
Fat and Wax
Mineral Salt

75.0%
0.5%
22.5 %
1.5 %
0.5%

This composition is calculated in 100 percent.

Chemical Composition of Jute Fiber
Jute fibres are composed primarily of the plant materials cellulose (major component of
plant fibre) and lignin (major components of wood fibre).
Cellulose
Hemi-cellulose
Lignin
Water Soluble matter
Fat and Wax

65.2%
22.2%
12.5%
1.5%
0.6%

Chemical Composition of Cotton Fiber:

Cellulose
Protein
Ash
Pectin
Oil, Fat and Wax
Sugar
Pigment
Others

94.0%
1.3%
1.2%
1.2%
0.6%
0.3%
trace
1.4%

Chemical Composition of Linen/Flax Fiber:

Cellulose

92%

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Hemicellulose
Lignin
Others

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2%
4%
2%

Chemical Composition of Hemp Fiber:

Cellulose
Hemicellulose
Lignin
Pectin
Fat & wax
Water soluble

77.77%
10.00%
6.8%
2.9%
0.90%
1.73%

Chemical Composition of Sisal Fiber:

Cellulose
Hemicellulose
Lignin
Pectin
Fat & wax
Water soluble

71.5%
18.0%
6.0%
2.3%
0.5%
1.7%

Chemical Composition of Coir Fiber:

Husk
Fiber
Pith
Kernel
Water

14%
22%
16%
30%
18%

Chemical Composition of Wool Fiber:

Keratin
Dirt
Suint
Fat
Mineral matter

33%
26%
28%
12%
1%

Classification of Fibre Properties

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Physical
Chemical
Mechanical
Electrical
Thermal
Biological
Optical

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8. Acoustic
9. Radiological
10. Environmental
Some Primary Properties of Textile Fibers are:

Fiber length to width ratio,

Fiber uniformity,
Fiber strength and flexibility,
Fiber extensibility and elasticity,
Fiber cohesiveness.

Physical Properties of Textile Fibres

A physical property is any aspect of an object or substance that can be measured or perceived
without changing its identity, examples are

Diameter
Linear density
Length
Cross-section
Colour
Crimp
Density
Moisture regain
Coefficient of friction etc.

Linear density
Denier: Weight in grams of 9000 meters of material
Tex : Weight in grams of 1000 meters of material
Dtex: Weight in grams of 10,000 meters of material
Mechanical Properties
The properties that describe a material's ability to compress, stretch, bend, scratch, dent,
or break.
Young's
modulus
Stiffness
Tenacity
Specific modulus
Tensile strength
Compressive strength
Shear strength
Yield strength
Elasticity , etc.

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Young's modulus (E)

A measure of the stiffness of fibers.
Also known as the modulus of elasticity, elastic modulus or tensile modulus
It is defined as the ratio of the uniaxial stress over the uniaxial strain in the range of
stress in which Hooke's Law holds.
This can be experimentally determined from the slope of a stress-strain curve
created during tensile tests conducted on a sample of the material.
Units of Youngs Modulus
Young's modulus is the ratio of stress, which has units of pressure, to strain, which is
dimensionless; therefore Young's modulus itself has units of pressure.The SI unit of modulus
of elasticity (E, or less commonly Y) is the pascal (Pa or N/m); the practical units are
megapascals (MPa or N/mm) or gigapascals (GPa or kN/mm).
In United States customary units, it is expressed as pounds (force) per square inch (psi).
1 pascal (Pa) = 1 N/m2 = 1 kg/(ms2)
Stiffness
The stiffness, k, of a body is a measure of the resistance offered by an elastic body to
deformation (bending, stretching or compression)

Where,
P is a steady force applied on the body and is the displacement produced by the force.
Hardness
Hardness refers to various properties of matter in the solid phase that give it high
resistance to various kinds of shape change when force is applied
Scratch hardness: Resistance to fracture or plastic (permanent) deformation due to
friction from a sharp object
Indentation hardness: Resistance to plastic (permanent) deformation due to a constant
load from a sharp object
Rebound hardness: Height of the bounce of an object dropped on the material, related
to elasticity.
Toughness
The ability of a metal to deform plastically and to absorb energy in the process before
fracture is termed toughness.
Specific modulus
Specific modulus is the elastic modulus per mass density of a material.
It is also known as the stiffness to weight ratio or specific stiffness.

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High specific modulus materials find wide application in aerospace applications

where minimum structural weight is required.
The utility of specific modulus is to find materials which will produce structures with
minimum weight, when the primary design limitation is deflection or physical
deformation, rather than load at breaking--this is also known as a "stiffness-driven"
structure. Many common structures are commonly stiffness-driven for example
airplane wings, bridges, bicycle frames.
Tensile Strength
Yield strength: The stress at which material strain changes from elastic deformation
to plastic deformation, using into deform permanently.
Ultimate strength: The maximum stress a material can withstand when subjected to
tension, compression or shearing. It is the maximum stress on the stress-strain curve.
Breaking strength: The stress coordinate on the stress-strain curve at the point of
rupture.
Unit of Tensile Strength
Tensile strength is measured in units of force per unit area.
In the SI system, the units are newtons per square metre (N/m) or pascals (Pa), with
prefixes as appropriate.
The non-metric units are pounds-force per square inch (lbf/in or PSI).
Engineers in North America usually use units of ksi which is a thousand psi.
One mega pascal is 145.037738 pounds-force per square inch.
Tenacity
Tenacity is the customary measure of strength of a fiber or yarn.
In the U.S. it is usually defined as the ultimate (breaking) strength of the fiber (in
gram-force units) divided by the denier.
Units: g/denier; cN/tex; N/tex

Where,
W = Weight in grams
L = length in metre
Specific Strength
The specific strength is a material's strength (force per unit area at failure) divided by
its density .
It is also known as the strength-to-weight ratio or strength/weight ratio.
Materials with high specific strengths are widely used in aerospace applications where
weight savings are worth the higher material cost.
In fiber or textile applications, tenacity is the usual measure of specific strength.

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Mechanical Failure Modes

Creep
Fatigue
Fracture
Impact
Mechanical overload
Rupture
Wear
Yielding

Creep
Creep is the tendency of a solid material to slowly move or deform permanently under
the influence of stresses.
It occurs as a result of long term exposure to levels of stress that are below the yield
strength of the material.
Creep is more severe in materials that are subjected to heat for long periods, and near
the melting point.
Creep always increases with temperature.
Fatigue
Fatigue is the progressive and localized structural damage that occurs when a material
is subjected to cyclic loading
Fracture
A fracture is the (local) separation of an object or material into two, or more, pieces
under the action of stress.
Impact
An impact is a high force or shock applied over a short time period.
Such a force or acceleration can sometimes have a greater effect than a lower force
applied over a proportionally longer time period.
Mechanical overload
The failure or fracture of a product or component in a single event is known as
mechanical overload.
Rupture
Rupture describes a failure mode in which, rather than cracking, the material "pulls
apart,
Wear
Wear is the erosion of material from a solid surface by the action of another surface.
It is related to surface interactions and more specifically the removal of material from
a surface as a result of mechanical action
Yielding

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The yield strength or yield point of a material is defined in engineering and materials
science as the stress at which a material begins to deform plastically.

Chemical Properties

Chemical reactivity
Chemical stability
Hygroscopicity
Contact angle

Chemical Reactivity: How it reacts to chemicals such as dyes, pigments, soaps, detergents
and bleaches.
Acids: Damages natural cellulosic, does not harm protein fibers.
Bases or alkalis: Do not harm cellulosic (cotton). Will damage protein fibers.
Oxidizing agents: eg. Bleach Some fibers are damaged by this Safe for polyester,
nylon, and cotton (controlled) Will damage protein fibers.
Solvents: Used in dry cleaning Organic solvents used to remove oily stains and dirt,
eg., Acetone damages acetate and triacetate.
Hygroscopicity
Hygroscopy is the ability of a substance to attract water molecules from the surrounding
environment through either absorption or adsorption.
Absorbency: Moisture regain. Its ability to take in moisture.
Hydrophilic fibers: Philic = likes, Can absorbs moisture are comfortable
Hydrophobic fibers: Phobic = dislikes, Do not absorb moisture readily
Hygroscopic fibers: Can absorb moisture without feeling wet. Ex. Animal hairs.
Contact Angle: The contact angle is the angle at which a liquid/vapor interface meets the
solid surface.

Environmental properties

Photo-stability
UV stability
Weathering
Oxidation

Edited By: Md. Parbhez