Prediction of Stress-Strain Behaviour and Energy Dissipation of Textile Protective Materials at Large Deformations

The aim of this study is to develop a model for the mechanical behavior of knitted fabrics, which are used in protection gloves, at large deformation and different strain rates in terms of extension/ recovery cycling. The non-linear viscoelastic model is based on the standard solid model. The choice of this model is based on its simplicity due to the limited number of elements. It contains three nonlinear spring and damper elements. The idea is to consider that, by analogy with elastomers, the mechanical behavior of the fabric in terms of hysteresis loop is due to the contribution of two parts: the first one represents the equilibrium state of the fabric and the second one is due to the deviation from this equilibrium. Then, the stress-strain behavior of the fabric at different strain rates can be computed using the same parameters determined at one value of strain rate. The dissipated energy is provided by the area under the hysteresis loop. A good agreement has been obtained between the experimental and theoretical results.