New indicators on fabric drape evaluation based on three-dimensional model

To evaluate the ability of woven fabrics to drape in a more accurate way, a three-dimensional point cloud of a draped woven fabric was captured via an in-house drape-scanner. A new indicator, total drape angle (TDA), was proposed based on the three-dimensional fabric drape to characterize the ability of a woven fabric to drape. The relationship between TDA and the drape coefficient (DC) was analyzed to validate the performance of TDA. The result indicated that TDA is more stable and representative than the traditional DC in characterizing the ability of a woven fabric to drape. In addition, the drape angle distribution function (DADF) of the triangular mesh was employed to describe fabric drape, as well as to bridge the gap between drape configuration and the warp bending rigidity of woven fabric. The results showed that the correlation coefficient between the real warp bending rigidity value and what was predicted warp based on DADF and fabric weight was 0.952.