Static and ultrasonic elastic moduli of wool, mohair and kemp fibres

Abstract

Fibres used in textiles can be classified broadly into natural fibres and synthetic fibres. Natural fibres can be either animal, such as wool, mohair and camel hair, or vegetable such as cotton, flax and hemp. In the development of synthetic fibres numerous polymers have emerged which have no real natural counterpart and are unique in their mechanical and chemical behaviour. Often the synthetic counterpart of a natural fibre has properties with certain advantages from the textile point of view, but, simultaneously, may exhibit other properties which have disadvantages. Nylon 6 and nylon 6-6, for exemple, are extremely strong and generally easier to dye than animal fibres. On the other hand, they absorb relatively little water vapour and therefore do not give the buffering action characteristic of hygroscopic fibres, once they are woven or knitted into cloth. All textile fibres belong to the chemical class of polymers, i.e. they are made up of repeating molecular units which are linked together to form long chains. In wool the chains are made up of amino-acids which cluster together to form protein chains. Three of these protein chains, coil around each other to form what is termed a proto-fibril. The proto-fibrils make up the micro-fibrils, each of these consisting of eleven of the three chain proto-fibrils. The micro-fibrils, in turn, pack together in bundles which run parallel to the length of the wool fibre and are termed macro-fibrils. Sulphur rich amino-acids fill up the spaces between the micro-fibrils forming a matrix which binds the system into a continuous material. Intro., p. 1.