Abstract
The theoretical yarn unevenness has been discussed by considering the joint influence of fiber length distribution and fiber fineness. For fiber length distribution, the fiber length density function was derived from the specific Weibull parameters obtained from actual fiber length measurements using an USTER AFIS instrument. Meanwhile, fiber fineness was added to Suh’s model by expressing spun yarn irregularity in terms of fiber mass variation. Comparisons of the calculated value of theoretical yarn unevenness in this paper with the tested and previously researched ones for different cotton yarns have been made. It is shown that the theoretical yarn unevenness calculated in this paper could better reflect the effect of fiber length and fiber fineness on yarn unevenness. This might be the theoretical foundation for the prediction of theoretical cotton yarn unevenness on the basis of actual fiber length distribution and fiber fineness.
Keywords
Research about yarn unevenness, an important evaluation indicator of yarn quality, has long been a classic topic in the field of textiles. The unevenness of yarn is a combination of theoretical yarn unevenness and additional yarn irregularity.1–3 It is well known that theoretical yarn unevenness is caused by the random fiber alignment in the yarn, while the additional yarn irregularity is caused during processing. Undoubtedly, fiber properties, such as fiber length and fiber fineness acting as the two dominant characteristics of the raw material of the yarn, affect the yarn unevenness.3–5 Due to the additional yarn irregularity depending on the processing, theoretical yarn unevenness is the best point for investigating the effect of actual fiber length and fiber fineness on yarn unevenness.
Many theoretical models have been put forward to express theoretical yarn unevenness. Basically, there are two main types of models. The first type is the models that provide mathematical expressions by considering the variation of the number of fibers in the yarn cross section and fiber fineness.2–4,6 The most representative model among this type was put forward by Martindale,
4
and its expression is
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the theoretical yarn unevenness by considering the joint influence of fiber length and fiber fineness. Fiber length measurements from AFIS have been applied and the fiber length density function was gained by the specific Weibull parameters obtained from the actual measurements. Meanwhile, the fiber fineness has been added to Suh’s model by expressing fiber mass variation. Then, theoretical values from Martindale’s work (without fiber length distribution effects), Suh’s model (without fiber fineness variation), and the calculated results with actual fiber length distributions in this paper were experimentally estimated and comparisons are made.
Model development
Assumptions
It is well known that yarn unevenness is defined as the unevenness of yarn linear density along its length.3,9 In this paper, theoretical yarn unevenness refers to the coefficient of variation of the yarn weight among each length interval in the yarn, which is in accordance with the test theory of commonly used evenness tester. In order to calculate the theoretical yarn unevenness with the given characteristics of fiber length and fiber fineness, several assumptions related to the yarn are made and shown as follows:
Theoretical derivation of the model
If Δ(mm) is the length interval in the yarn and l(mm) the fiber length; the fiber length distribution function in the yarn is F(l) and density function is f(l); S(mm) is the length of the fiber with the length l to be found within the length interval Δ in the yarn; N is the total number of fibers found within length interval Δ; T(tex) is the fiber fineness; and Gi(g) the weight of the ith fiber within the length interval Δ in the yarn (
Due to fiber fineness being independent of fiber length, the expectation of the weight of the ith fiber within length interval Δ can be derived by
Similarly, the variance of the weight of the ith fiber within length interval Δ can be derived by
Then, the expectation of the total weight of fibers within the length interval Δ can be derived by
Similarly, the variance of the total weight of fibers within the length interval Δ can be derived by
Finally, theoretical yarn unevenness, the coefficient of variation of the yarn weight among each length interval in the yarn, can be derived by
that is,
Determination of the unknown parameters
According to Suh’s theory,
5
the expectation and the variance of S (the length of the fiber to be found within the length interval Δ in the yarn) are given by
Then, the coefficient of variation of fiber length for the fibers found within length interval Δ in the yarn can be calculated by
Fiber fineness varies significantly along the fiber axis with natural cotton. In order to obtain the coefficient of variation of fiber fineness by number, YG002C fiber fineness meter was used. Experimental principle was shown as follows: after finishing the cotton sample, a single fiber was straight and placed on a glass slide, then this glass slide was placed in microscope stage. Through the objective lens (the magnification is 4×), the eyepiece and the camera, the longitudinal morphology of this fiber was shown on the screen of the computer. Thereafter, data collection by clicking on the opposite fiber edges to gain the diameter of the fiber was done with the longitudinal gauge of 0.2 mm. Each group of 30 fibers for one cotton sample was tested.
According to the relationship between fiber diameter and fiber fineness,
12
According to Brown’s theory,
19
the expected number of fibers to be found within length interval Δ in the yarn is given by
In order to obtain the value of CV(N), an assumption that the number of fibers in yarn cross section follows the Poisson distribution is still adopted.4,5,7 Obviously, the number of fibers to be found within length interval Δ in the yarn also follows the Poisson distribution. Then,
The coefficient of variation of the number of fibers found within length interval Δ in the yarn can be calculated by
Experimental verification
The properties of fibers and the resultant yarns
In this paper, the frequency histogram of the finished sliver was regarded as the same as that of the resultant yarns of each cotton sample. Fiber lengths of these four cotton samples have been tested by using an USTER AFIS instrument. The fiber length frequency histograms by number and their fitted curves of the mixture model are shown in Figure 1. Then, the parameters of this mixture model were obtained.
Fiber length frequency histograms of four samples and their fitted curves of the mixture of two Weibull distributions.
Results of several parameters of fiber length and CV(S) of four cotton samples
Results of CV(d) and CV(T) of four cotton samples
From Table 3, the relationship between the coefficient of variation of fiber diameter and fiber fineness could be given by [CV(T)] 2 ≈ 4[CV(d)] 2 , which was in accordance with Martindale’s theory. 4
Comparison between the tested yarn unevenness and the calculated results
Comparison between the tested and calculated yarn unevenness
Even though the differences between Martindale’s, Suh’s, and this paper’s work are due to process variance (the additional yarn irregularity caused during the processing) and fiber fineness variance contributing to yarn irregularity, which cannot be easily separated, on the basis of the results in Table 5 it could also be concluded that:
All the calculated values of yarn unevenness were less than the tested ones because of the existence of the additional yarn irregularity caused during the processing. For each cotton sample, variation tendency of different calculated values was in consistent with the one of the tested value. When fiber length distributions and fiber fineness of different yarns were the same, the larger the yarn linear density, the smaller the yarn unevenness, which is consistent with reality. For different calculated values of yarn unevenness, the analyses were as follows: Martindale’s results were larger than the ones from Suh, because when yarn unevenness was calculated by Suh’s model, Δ = 8 mm was assumed, in accordance with the actual test length of commonly used in the Uster evenness tester, whereas in Martindale’s model, Δ → 0.
The results calculated in this paper were larger than Suh’s results because the effect of fiber fineness variance, CV(T), on yarn unevenness, ignored by Suh’s model, was taken into consideration in this paper.
In conclusion, the calculated values of the theoretical yarn unevenness obtained in this paper are consistent with reality, which shows that the method pointed to in this paper could be accepted to calculate the values of yarn unevenness in consideration of the actual test fiber length distribution and fiber fineness.
Conclusions
In this paper, the theoretical yarn unevenness was calculated by considering the joint influence of fiber length distribution and fiber fineness, in which a mixture of two Weibull distributions was adopted to gain the density function of fiber length distribution from different cotton samples. Comparisons were made between different calculated values of yarn unevenness and the tested ones. The results showed that for one cotton sample, variation tendency of the yarn unevenness calculated in this paper was in accordance with other calculated and tested ones. For different calculated values of yarn unevenness, the theoretical yarn unevenness calculated in this paper could reflect the joint influence effect of fiber length and fiber fineness on yarn unevenness better than other expressions, such as Martindale’s and Suh’s. This could be the theoretical foundation for the prediction of theoretical yarn unevenness from different cotton samples with different fiber length distribution and fiber fineness. To expand this research, how the different fiber characteristics such as fiber length and fiber fineness affect yarn unevenness can be further discussed.
Footnotes
Funding
This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 51173023) and the Chinese Universities Scientific Fund (grant number CUSF-DH-D-2014005).
