Evaluation of Single Jersey Knitted Fabric Drape Behaviour

Drape is an important property directly related to textile aesthetics. It plays a significant role in developing and selecting textile materials in the textile and apparel industry. Considerable research has been carried out to examine the relationship between the drape behaviour and fabric physical parameters in woven fabric. However, very little research has been carried out on the drape of knitted fabrics. Knitted fabrics are more popular due to fashion versatility, ability of designs and product development. Objective evaluation of the drape of a fabric is of great importance, since understanding the drape behaviour is important for the selection of appropriate fabrics for intended end-uses and therefore the correlation between drape and fabric properties should be known. The focus of this research is to find out the relationship between single jersey (plain) finished knitted fabric drape behaviour and identified key fabric parameters. For this purpose, the drape of the fabric was tested against various fabric parameters using a Cusick Drape Tester. An empirical model was developed that expresses the relationship as well as helps to calculate the drape coefficient directly.