Research on permeability of satin fabrics based on fractal theory

A new fractal model for predicting the permeability of satin fabrics is proposed mainly based on the fractal theory. The repetitive unit was selected first according to the structural characteristic of a fabric. Then, the tortuosity fractal dimension was figured out after the actual length of a pore channel calculated by the minimum potential energy method. The maximum equivalent diameter, on which the structure fractal dimension can be computed depends, was obtained later by the microscopic measurement technique. Subsequently, the permeability was expressed as the explicit equation of various structural parameters, such as the representative length, the tortuosity fractal dimension, and the structure fractal dimension, which makes the physical meanings of each parameter intuitive and clear. Finally, the permeability of a five-harness fabric and an eight-harness fabric was predicted according to the new fractal models. In order to validate the new model, contrast experiments were designed. The results show that the predicted values agree well with the experimental values, which illustrate that the new method is feasible and effective.