Study on Fabric Surface Roughness and its Influence on Worsted Fabric Abrasion Resistance

Surface roughness is of paramount importance in predicting tactile properties of fabrics. This study aimed at investigating surface roughness and the effect of this property on the abrasion resistance of worsted fabrics. Nine different groups of worsted fabrics were produced. The fabrics had three weave types and three areal densities. A non-contact laser based system was developed to scan the surface of the fabrics. In order to extract the surface roughness profile, a new method of data analysis was presented. Several two dimensional (2D) and three dimensional (3D) roughness parameters were introduced and calculated. Statistical analysis proved that the effect of weave type and weft density was significant on all of the 2D and 3D surface roughness parameters at a confidence range of 95%. However, the 3D parameters provided the surface roughness with just one number in comparison with the 2D ones (warp and weft directions). Therefore, the 3D parameters provided a better indication for the surface roughness which had the effect of both warp and weft directions. Results showed that there was a strong linear correlation between the abrasion resistance and the 3D roughness parameters.