Influence of high-performance yarns degradation inside three-dimensional warp interlock fabric

During the weaving process, damages to yarns are observed and can lead to severe loss of mechanical properties in the final woven material. A complete and detailed analysis of the different steps, from the yarn spinning to the three-dimensional interlock weaving, has been carried out to measure the loss of properties of para-aramid warp and weft yarns. Thanks to special devices adapted to the weaving process, the maximum values of loss of mechanical properties are 10% for the warp yarns and 6% for the weft yarns. Among the different three-dimensional warp interlocks tested (orthogonal, through-the-thickness and layer-to-layer), best results in limiting warp yarn damage are obtained considering the through-the-thickness three-dimensional interlock fabric and for the weft yarn damage the layer-to-layer three-dimensional interlock fabric. The main interest of these results is to obtain an optimized solution after a weaving process on three-dimensional woven interlock fabrics. Moreover, thanks to the study we can realize that a three-dimensional weaving process could lead to damage the yarns and the structure before the final use as composite material.