Effect of grain size and abrasion duration on the state of textile fabric surfaces

During an abrasive wear process with emery paper, the influence of grain size and abrasion duration on the tribological behaviour of textile fabrics were studied with a rotative tribometer for fabrics and an optical hairiness meter, the latter measuring the hairiness quantity on the fabric surface. First of all, the effect of the abrasive material graining on the state of the worn fabric surface is shown. Using a fine grain size leads to a worn fabric at the microscopic scale (fibre). Using a coarse grain size shows that the state of the fabric surface is completely different, since the fibre surface is not worn. Actually, some fibres are partly pulled out from the fabric, then this is an abrasion at the mesoscopic scale (yarn). Afterwards, the results show a cyclic behaviour of the fabric friction relative to the time due to a cyclic change of the fabric surface. Thus, this study brings into light the non-linear surface wear of textile fabrics.