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Title: ESTIMATION OF SINGLE COTTON FIBER TENSILE PROPERTIES FROM THE LOAD-ELONGATION CURVES OF SLACK BUNDLES

Author
item CUI, XIAOLIANG - TEXAS TECH
item SUH, MOON - NC STATE UNIVERSITY
item SASSER, PRESTON - COTTON INCORPORATED

Submitted to: Textile Research Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/22/2003
Publication Date: 12/1/2003
Citation: Cui, X., Suh, M.W., Sasser, P.E. 2003. Estimation of single cotton fiber tensile properties from the load-elongation curves of slack bundles. Textile Research Journal. 73:1066-1070.

Interpretive Summary: Cotton fiber tensile properties can be obtained by testing either single fibers or fiber bundles. Test results from the two methods are substantially different. The tenacity from a bundle test is much lower than the value from a single fiber test, even lower than 50%. Depending on the mechanism of the bundle breakage, this difference may be caused by the variations in fiber breaking elongations, breaking strengths and fiber crimps. In many cases, single fiber tensile data are more desirable than bundle test results. For example, some research results indicated that the single fiber test results predicted yarn tensile properties better than that from bundle tests. However, the single fiber testing method is too time-consuming and expensive compared to bundle test methods. A method is developed in this research to estimate single cotton fiber tensile properties from load-elongation curves obtained from breaking slac fiber bundles. The method was applied to bundle load-elongation curves from HVI tests. The averages of fiber breaking strength, elongation and crimp were estimated by use of this method. The estimated values were compared against the single fiber tensile properties obtained from the Mantis single fiber tester. The estimates from bundle tests showed good agreement with the data from single fiber tests.

Technical Abstract: A method is developed in this research to estimate single cotton fiber tensile properties from load-elongation curves of slack fiber bundles. The method was applied to bundle load-elongation curves from HVI tests. The averages of fiber breaking strength, elongation and crimp were estimated by use of this method. The estimated values were compared against the single fiber tensile properties obtained from the Mantis single fiber tester, and the results showed fairly good agreement.