Effect of yarn geometry and fiber properties on tensile behavior of cotton yarns swollen and stretched in aqueous zinc chloride

Single‐ and two‐ply yarns of different counts were swollen slack under optimum conditions in aqueous zinc chloride and stretched back to original length. While two‐ply yarns showed an improvement in tenacity that was less pronounced in finer counts, single yarns always showed a fall in tenacity. Various properties of the treated yarns like packing fraction, fiber and yarn orientation, cross‐sectional morphology, etc. were evaluated to ascertain the likely factors responsible for the differential behavior of the chemically treated single‐ and two‐ply yarns.