Silk fibroin (SF) / hyaluronic acid (HA) blend films were prepared using 1-ethyl-3- (3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) as crosslinking agent and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS), 2-morpholinoethanesulfonic acid (MES) as assistant agents. The physico-chemical properties of the blend films were examined and analyzed. The FTIR shows that HA interferes with SF to form crystal structures, whereas EDC induces SF to form Silk I. Compared to the uncross-linked blend films, the EDC cross-linked blend films show an obvious increase in elongation at break, and a decrease in tensile strength and Young's modulus. The flexibility of the films improved significantly. L929 cells grew well on SF/HA blend films, demonstrating that the blend films cross-linked with EDC have no significant toxicity.

The aim of this work is to research the performance of nano TiO_2 photocatalyst on physical & chemical properties of cotton fiber. Different concentration of photocatalyst was finished on the cotton fabric by finishing process. The UV light and the natural light were used as the light source to irradiate the fabric. By determining the fiber's polymerization degree, crystallinity, as well as the fabric's breaking strength, tear strength and K/S value, the influence of the nano TiO_2 photocatalyst on the physical & chemical properties and the colour of the cotton fiber were measured.

The composites of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) with untreated or alkali treated (A-) or silane-coupling treated (SC-) flax noil fibers (flax) were prepared by non-woven method and hot pressing technology. The biodegradability of the composites was evaluated by activated soil-burial test. The presence of untreated flax or A-flax or SC-flax led to the acceleration of weight loss due to preferential degradation of flax, which was demonstrated in the SEM micrographs and FTIR spectra. Rates of weight loss decreased in the order flax/PLA (24.0%/35days) > A-flax/PLA (20.6%/35days) > SC-flax/PLA (17.8%/35days) and also decreased with interface shear strengths of the composites. The weight loss of PLA and flax after 35 days was 4% and 52.5% respectively.

Ring yarns are increasingly used in Denim fabrics. Fibre arrangement in spun yarn influences the various yarn properties. Spinning triangle in case of compact spinning remains smaller than that of conventional ring spinning process; hence the migration of fibres takes place to different extents in yarns spun using these technologies. As a result with the advent of compact spinning technology overall quality of yarn has improved significantly. In view to study the effect of compacting the fibre batt on fibre migration, denim yarns of count 8Ne and 12Ne have been produced using compaction attachments of pneumatic principle based on Marzoli's Olefil and mechanical magnetic principle based on Rotorcraft's RoCos, on the same spindles of Marzoli ringframe. Fibre migration in terms of mean fibre position, RMS deviation and migration intensity has been determined using tracer fibre technique under CCD camera attached with a computer having image processing software. Experimental results have been analyzed using two way ANOVA with replication technique. It was observed that, migration intensity of normal ring yarns is significantly higher than compact yarns whereas migration intensity of mechanical magnetic compact yarns is significantly higher than that of pneumatic compact yarns. There are no significant changes noted in mean fibre position and RMS deviation. These yarn samples are also evaluated for their various yarn characteristics viz. tensile strength, elongation, unevenness, hairiness, etc to determine the structure- property interrelationship.

With the development of new synthetic fibres it is significant to study water transport through the fabric. Vertical wicking test is usually used to understand this fabric property. But the method for gaining parameters is still done manually at present. This paper will report an image processing technique on water transport through fabrics. Fabric images during wicking are shot for every 1min in 30mins. Every image can be divided into two areas to indicate fabric dryness and wetness. Finally, the wicking height can be calculated to understand water transport through the fabric. Considering the distortion of the vertical object image size far away from optical axis it is necessary to modify wicking height. Based on the vertical wicking measurement for fabric, the modification method took 300 mm height of the distortion image that was divided by 1 mm. A modifier formula was deduced based on geometry. It can improve the precision of wicking height obtained by image processing techniques. An application example is also described in this paper. Some fabrics were proved to have good water absorbing quality and moisture management. From the curve of the wicking height based on image processing techniques, initial wicking rate can explain the water absorbing quality and the maximum wicking height is used to illustrate moisture management.

Properties of natural bamboo fibers produced by Neosinocalamus affinis were studied. The natural bamboo fiber was evaluated for its mechanical properties, moisture absorption and thermal properties using Optical Contact Angle Meter (OCA), Thermo-gravimetric Analyzer and Electronic Fiber Strength Tester. Flax and jute fibers were selected as control fibres. The results show that the bamboo fiber is high in tenacity, but low in elongation, similar to all bast fibers. By testing, it was found that the bamboo fiber is low in density with a small contact angle when water dropped, since it is constituted by cellulose along with lignin and hemicellulose. The bamboo fiber has advantages in terms of moisture absorption, drying rate and thermal property. Hence, we predict that the bamboo fiber is suitable for summer textiles, similar to flax and jute fibers.

Natural polyphenolic dye extracted from green tea is used to dye cotton cellulose fibers. FTIR for the microstructure analysis of fibers, and SEM for the surface morphology observation have been used to characterize the changes induced by tea dyeing. Color shade, thermal stability and mechanical property of dyed fibers are tested. The results show that hydroxyl group of tea polyphenolic and cotton cellulose forms hydrogen bond in dyed fibers without mordant agent, while both coordinate bond and hydrogen bond are coexisted in meta-mordant dyed fibers. The deep shade is obtained in acid media of pH 4 for meta-mordant dyed fibers due to the mordant effect. The coordinate bond contributes to the thermal stability of meta-mordant dyed fibers. The formation of fiber-Fe complexation decreases tensile strength and increases elongation at break for fibers.

For better performance, efficient numerical methods describing physical behaviour of clothes are needed for any cloth simulation system. In this paper we report a quantitative research performed on the stability of the most widely used integration techniques in cloth simulation. Advantages and weaknesses of various integration techniques are listed for trade-off among stability, accuracy and speed. In this light, we offer a solution for choosing numerical methods when dealing with simulation problems.

With the increasing concern on occupational safety, people pay more and more attention to mechanical protection. At present, the focus of relevant researches is on the mechanical protection performance of high-performance fibres and high-strength fabrics. The influences that mechanical properties of fabrics have on the mechanical protective performance of clothing are discussed in this paper. Woven fabrics made of high-performance fibres have been widely used as mechanical protective clothing in the form of flexible armour such as bullet-proof vests, stab-resistant garments and so on. The mechanical response and energy absorption characteristics of fabrics under high-speed projectile impact are dependent upon intrinsic constitutive relations, construction parameters such as fabric type, fabric construction, areal density, projectile shape, and impact conditions such as impact velocity and boundary conditions.This project involves the study of Kevlar fibre which is a poly-p-phenylene terephthamide (PPTA) fibre. The Kevlar fabric studied in this paper is plain woven. Experiments about construction parameters of Kevlar yarns are proposed to obtain the mechanical properties of woven fabrics. This paper also investigates the finite-element simulation of huge impact on Kevlar fabric by proposing a material model, which incorporates stretch and elasticity restoring property and failure criteria. A non-linear, explicit, three-dimensional finite-element program ANSYS is used to simulate the response of fabric to high-speed projectile impact with two Hookean springs and a Newtonian dashpot.

Bubble electrospinning is a novel method to produce ultrafine nanofibers. In this work, a mathematical model of the electric field distribution in a critical state was established for bubble electrospinning process and was numerically simulated using finite element method. The results indicated that the maximum electric force occurred at the tip of the bubble, it is probably for this reason that the first jet occurs at the tip of the bubble, when the electrical force exceeds the surface tension, which also possibly induces bubble bursting.