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Structural
Structural characterization of characterization
textile fabrics using surface of textile fabrics
roughness data
445
Savvas G. Vassiliadis
Department of Electronics, Technological Education Institute of Piraeus, Received January 2004
Athens, Greece Revised April 2004
Accepted April 2004
Christopher G. Provatidis
School of Mechanical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens,
Athens, Greece
Keywords Textile fibres, Surface texture, Numerical analysis
Abstract The surface of the textile fabrics is not absolutely flat and smooth. Its geometrical
roughness within certain extents is considerable. The surface roughness influences the fabric
hand and it plays a significant role in the end use of the fabric. In parallel, the periodic
variations of the fabric surface level due to the regular interlaced patterns of the yarns cause a
respective variation of the geometrical roughness measurement. Thus, the fabric roughness
data measured using the Kawabata Evaluation System for Fabrics and imposed to a certain
process of numerical calculations result into the retrieval of the structural parameters of the
fabric. The principle of the method has a non-destructive character and can be applied to woven
or knitted fabrics.

Introduction
The measurement of the micromechanical properties of the textile fabrics can take
place using various methods and equipment. The most commonly used is the one
based on the Kawabata Evaluation System for Fabrics (KES-F), establishing an
almost global reference method. It provides precise low stress mechanical
measurements. It is mainly used for the objective measurement of the fabric hand
parameters and it supports the determination of complex properties of the textile
fabrics like sewability, seam puckering, etc. (Kawabata and Niwa, 1998). In
addition to the low stress mechanical tests, the KES-F provides facilities for the
measurement of the coefficient of friction and the geometrical roughness of the
fabric. The surface characteristics contribute to the formation of the total hand
value (THV) of the fabric. Earlier work has been done using the friction measuring
data obtained from the KES-F system for the tribological investigation of the
textile fabrics (Bueno et al., 1996). On the other hand, surface data obtained using
optical methods and subjected to signal processing techniques have been used for
the identification of the fabric structures (Xu, 1996). Surface data of a fabric,
captured by an optical CCD sensor and processed later, leaded to the detection of International Journal of Clothing
structural defects (Castellini et al., 1996). The present paper discusses the use of Science and Technology
Vol. 16 No. 5, 2004
the surface data obtained by the KES-F system, for the structural characterisation pp. 445-457
of the textile fabrics, substituting other analytical testing and maximising the q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0955-6222
utilization of the information available from the KES-F measurements. DOI 10.1108/09556220410554633
IJCST Method of measurements
The surface roughness of a fabric can be measured using either optical or mechanical
16,5 principles. One instrument already in use for measuring of the surface roughness based
on a mechanical sensor in the textile laboratories is the KES-FB4. It is a part of the
KES-F system, which consists of four individual measuring instruments connected to a
central computer. The particular KES-FB4 can conduct simultaneously the
446 measurements of the geometrical roughness and the coefficient of friction (m) of the
fabric. The sensing element consists of a metallic rod equipped in its free end with a
thin wire in a U form (Figure 1). The sensor touches the surface of the fabric under a
constant normal force. A linear differential transformer is used for the generation of an
electrical signal proportional to the vertical movement of the sensor.
The width of the sensor is about 6 mm. If the density of the yarns is n threads/cm,
the sensor scans simultaneously a part (w) of the fabric equal to:
w ¼ 0:6n ðthreadsÞ
Considering that the density of the yarns in the majority of the fabrics is
10-30 threads/cm, the sensing wire scans simultaneously a certain width corresponding
to 5-15 threads. Thus, the surface roughness data are not exactly derived from a
punctual scanning of the fabric surface. That data represent the global roughness of
that stripe containing many interlaced yarns.

Structure of the surface

The textile fabrics are rare balanced in terms of appearance of warp and weft on their
surface. Very often, even in the case of the plain weave fabrics, there is a domination of
one group of threads. They appear more intense on the surface resulting in hiding the
other group of threads. This is introducing a certain difficulty in obtaining structural
information from the surface roughness data. Usually it is possible to obtain structural
data for one direction of the fabric whereas the results on the other direction do not give

Figure 1.
Sensing element of
KES-FB4
clear information about the respective structural parameters. Under certain conditions Structural
it is possible to obtain information about the large scale relief data of the surface as it
happens in the case of the twill fabrics.
characterization
Figure 2 shows the cross-section of an ideal plain weave fabric. If the mechanical of textile fabrics
scanning device was able to follow exactly the upper surface of the fabric, it should
detect a repeated pattern of wavelength l. This wavelength corresponds to the double
yarn spacing p. 447
l ¼ 2p
Since the sensing element covers a wider region (more than one thread), it will scan the
upper surface of the structure shown in Figure 3. The signal produced will contain a
repeat of the pattern of wavelength l equal to the yarn spacing p. An interesting point
is that the theoretical amplitude (DH) of the variation of the surface level is restricted to
the half if compared with the previous case.
l¼p
A factor having an important role in the configuration of the surface characteristics of
the fabric is the crimp of the yarns, under the consideration that the yarn densities of
warp and weft are of the same class. If the crimp values of the weft and warp yarns are
close to each other, the fabric produced is more or less balanced in terms of appearance.

Figure 2.
Cross-section of a plain
weave fabric

Figure 3.
Side view of a plain
weave fabric
IJCST If the values of the crimp are far from each other, the result is an unbalanced surface
16,5 with one dominating direction in the surface structure of the fabric (Figure 4).
The real structure of the fabrics differs from the ideal one, mainly because of the
flattening of the yarns cross-sections. The flattened yarns lead to a compressed profile
of the fabric, and to a minimised amplitude of the variation of the surface level
(Figure 5).
448 In the case of the knitted fabrics the situation is more complex. It is very difficult to
correlate the structural characteristics of the fabric to their surface roughness data. The
sequence of the variations of the fabric surface is not that clear and well defined as it
happens in the case of the woven fabrics. Each structural unit consists of the various
parts of a loop and usually these parts are in a non-orthogonal arrangement. Although
it is very difficult to obtain precise structural information from the surface roughness
data of the knitted fabric, it is possible to obtain information about the design of the
fabric. There is a way to define the knit of the fabric: single jersey, double jersey or
interlaced.

Measurement
In order to obtain the surface roughness measurements, the samples are mounted on
the KES-FB4 instrument and the procedure starts when the sensors of friction and
geometrical roughness are scanning a certain part of the fabric surface under constant
speed (KES, 1991). The sensors transform the measurements of the coefficient of
friction and the thickness variation (geometrical roughness) into an electrical signal.
The signal is amplified within the KESF-FB4 electronic unit and it is transferred to the

Figure 4.
Unbalanced surface
structure

Figure 5.
Flattened cross-sections of
the yarns
computer connected to the system. The analog to digital converter (ADC) module in the Structural
personal computer converts the analog signal into a digital one. The digital signal can
be stored on the magnetic media of the computer or it can be processed in a further
characterization
stage. of textile fabrics
The geometrical roughness measurement is a part of the global objective
measurements of the fabrics, which include the full set of the micromechanical
parameters of the fabric (Kawabata, 1989). If a fabric is subjected to the objective 449
measurements procedure, there are raw data available from the geometrical roughness
measurement on the KESF-FB4, i.e. there is no need for a specific measurement. The
availability of the surface roughness data, strengthens the interest on the use of these
surface data for the determination of the structural parameters of the fabrics under test
(Figure 6).
The geometrical roughness signal is almost useless in its raw form. In that stage the
signal indicates only the upper and lower limits of the thickness variation of the fabric.
In order to get a better idea about the variation characteristics of the signal, an
integrator is used. The integration is either analog (if there is no computer connected to
the system) or numerical (if the signal is transferred to a computer for further
processing). The calculated value gives an indication about the variation mode of the
signal. If Lmax is the scanning length, z is the displacement of the sensor from an
arbitrary standard position, z̄ the mean roughness, the mean deviation of the surface
roughness is calculated as follows:
Z Lmax
1
SMD ¼ jz 2 z
j dL
Lmax 0
The next step involved in the processing of the roughness signal is the examination of
its frequency contents. The frequency contents may provide useful information about
the fabric structure in a convenient form.

Signal discrimination
The specimen is mounted under a constant mechanical tension on a special scanning
table. Scanning take place by moving the table and consequently, the fabric is mounted
on it at constant speed (1 mm/s). The sensor is in contact to the fabric surface and it is
mounted on a fixed positioned beam. The final digital signal is stored in the memory of
the computer and then in the storage devices. Let the scanning length be Lmax
expressed in millimeters, and the total number of the samples within that scanning
length is N. The sampling frequency can be defined as:

Figure 6.
Fabric surface roughness
measurement
IJCST fs ¼
N
ðsamples=mmÞ
16,5 Lmax

Based on the Nyquist theorem of sampling, the minimum sampling frequency to

resolve a feature from a digital signal is fmax. On the opposite, if the sampling
frequency is given, the maximum frequency content of a digital signal can be assumed:
450
fs N
fs ¼ 2fmax , fmax ¼ ¼
2 2Lmax

Hence, for the KES-FB4 the maximum frequency content or by inversion the minimum
discriminating length is:

1 1 2 2Lmax
lmin ¼ ¼ ¼ ¼ ðmmÞ
f max f2s fs N

This is the minimum length of a surface variation (minimum wavelength) detectable

by the specific KES-FB4 system. The sampling frequency is a technical characteristic
of the A/D converter module defining its performance.
If the density of the threads of the fabric is less than 1/lmin, all the embossed
details of its surface can be detected and recorded. Of course, the majority of the fabrics
in use do not exceed that upper limit imposed by the technical characteristics of
KES-FB4.

Fourier transform of the data

The driving software of our KES-F system exports the data in a hexadecimal format. It
is necessary to convert the raw data in the standard ASCII format. A Fortran code has
been developed for the automatic conversion of the data.
The geometrical roughness signal in the time domain gives a first approach to its
morphological characteristics. It provides the amplitude of the variation and after a
short process it is possible to obtain the statistical characteristic of the mean deviation
of the signal. Information about the frequency components is almost impossible to be
obtained from the time domain raw signal. The rare exception is when the main
frequency existing in the signal is of high power and the rest frequency components
are of much less power.
Fourier transform is a powerful engineering tool widely used in many applications
and of course, in many textile fields. The specific use of the Fourier transform, as an
analysis tool of the geometrical roughness signal, is very successful since it detects and
quantifies its frequency components.
The data of the geometrical roughness signal are given in the discrete form:

zðnÞ ¼ {zð0Þ; zð1Þ; zð2Þ; . . .; zðN 2 1Þ}

where N is the total number of the samples of the raw digital signal. Every component
of the signal is represented by a numerical value, thus the signal z(n) is considered as a
digital signal. Considering the discrete character of the signal the discrete Fourier
transform (DFT) of the initial signal can be considered (Papoulis, 1962).
 X
N 21 Structural
zðnÞe2jð N Þnk ;
2p
Z ðkÞ ¼ 0#k#N 21
n¼0
characterization
of textile fabrics
If the number of the samples chosen is equal to 2n, then the DFT can be replaced by a
usual fast Fourier transform (FFT) of the geometrical roughness signal. The main
property of the FFT is the fast calculation of the frequency components of the signal. 451
The Fourier transform as a result gives a discrete spectrum of N components. Of
course, that output spectrum has a symmetric form and practically the information
contained in the spectral output is restricted to the N/2 components.
In the current application, for every test 260 samples are available in forward and
another 260 in the backward relative motion of the sensor. In the analysis following,
the forward data are considered only in the processing to avoid any misuse of the
backward motion data. Using the 260 samples of the signal the outmost close N values
for the FFT are either 128 or 256. The higher the samples number the better the
discrimination of the output spectrum components. However, the length of 128 has
been chosen because the first few samples are not of valid value due to the settling
period of the electronic system. Considering an FFT of a signal of length 128, the
output spectrogram will contain 128=2 ¼ 64 components.
The approach used in the current work is to calculate the FFT of a signal consisting
of the first 128 samples. The next stage is to calculate the FFT of a signal consisting of
128 samples, but starting from the tenth sample, then the FFT of the 128 samples
starting from the twentieth sample, etc. The main idea is to calculate the FFT within a
window of length 128 sliding on the initial signal. The distance between the two
successive windows is constant and has been selected equal to ten.
The S resulting sequences of the transformed data are then averaged in the
frequency domain, to obtain a reliable estimate of the data spectrum:

1X S
Z ave ðkÞ ¼ Z ðsÞ ðkÞ; k ¼ 0; 1; . . .; K 2 1:
S s¼1

The averaged Fourier transform estimates the data spectrum at K discrete equispaced
frequency points of the form {2p k=K; k ¼ 0; 1; . . .; K 2 1}. This expression is more
precise than the single FFT transform and the variation between the different
spectrums gives a good approach of the uniformity of the signal in terms of frequency
contents.
The spectral contents of the signal provided by the averaged FFT transform are
presented on the spectrogram. Each column of the spectrogram corresponds to a
frequency component contained in the initial signal. Its amplitude corresponds to the
power of the specific component and its position on the frequency axis indicates
the specific frequency it corresponds to. One point of interest is the calibration of the
horizontal axis in order to indicate the exact values of frequencies or the equivalent
wavelength.

L
lmin ¼ 2l ¼ 2
N
IJCST where lmin is the minimum wavelength appearing on the spectrogram, l is the
16,5 sampling interval, L is the mean scanned length and N is the total samples number.

Results
Plain weave
452 The numerous FFT’s were calculated for each position of the “sliding” window on the
initial signal. Since the window has a length of 128 samples and the total samples
number is 260 it is possible to calculate up to 13 partial FFT of the signal
corresponding to the various positions of the “sliding” window. The FFT of the warp
direction of the samples used is shown in Figure 7. The strongest frequency
components of the 13 successive spectrograms are located in the same position. It is an
indication that the information is distributed equally on the total length of the 260
samples of the signal and it does not depend on the position of the sliding window.
A further result of this observation is that it is safe to use the averaged FFT of the
initial signal without any loss or distortion of the information contained. In the weft
direction the relationship between the various FFT spectrograms of the sliding
window is the same as it happens in the warp direction, i.e. the averaged FFT is
absolutely the representative concerning the frequency contents of the geometrical
roughness signal.
The sample of the plain weave fabric has the following structural characteristics:
.
Warp: Ne 30/2, 25 threads/cm
.
Weft: Ne 20/1, 22 threads/cm
. Weight per unit area: 230 g/m2
In the spectrogram of Figure 8, the strongest frequency component corresponds to the
wavelength of 0.451 mm. As it is already given, the threads density of the weft of the
sample is 22 threads/cm or their spacing is 0.454 mm. The surface scanning in the warp
direction detects the periodic variation of the surface due to the weft threads. The error

Figure 7.
FFT’s of surface
roughness signal (sliding
window)
 Structural
characterization
of textile fabrics

453

Figure 8.
Averaged FFT of warp
direction

between the real threads spacing and the one detected by the FFT of the geometrical
roughness signal is less than 0.7 per cent.
The scanning in the weft direction due to the more intense presence of the warp
threads gives more than one main peak of comparable power. There is a first peak on
the wavelength of 0.43 mm, when the real distance between the yarns of the sample is
0.42 mm. The error is about 2.5 per cent. It is interesting to observe that a next peak is
detected on the wavelength of 0.82 mm corresponding practically to the first harmonic
wavelength (corresponding to the subharmonic frequency) of the basic one. It is
obvious that in the weft direction the method of obtaining structural data based on the
surface roughness of the fabric provides less reliable results due to the domination of a
set of the yarns over the surface of the fabric (Provatidis et al., 2003) (Figure 9).

Figure 9.
Averaged FFT of weft
direction
IJCST Twill weave
The surface of the twill fabric is characterised by the successive diagonal ribs. The
16,5 slope of the ribs depends on the specific twill weave as well as on the structural
characteristics of the fabric (warp and weft density etc.). A twill fabric 2/2 has been
used with the following characteristics:
.
Warp: Ne 24/2, 21
454 .
Weft: Ne 40/2, 25 threads/cm
.
Weight per unit area: 245 g/m2
A specimen was subjected to geometrical roughness measurement in the warp and
weft directions as well as additionally in another three equispaced directions in
between the initial ones, i.e. 22.58, 458, 67.58. This procedure establishes the
multidirectional scanning of the fabric. The geometrical roughness signals obtained
have been processed in the same way as in the case of the plain weave fabrics. Using
the sliding window principle the FFT of the particular signals have been calculated.
For every measuring direction the averaged FFT has been defined. The spectra of the
averaged FFT are shown in Figure 10.
It is obvious that a strong frequency component appears when the scanning angle
approaches the vertical direction to the ribs of the fabric. It is the dominating
wavelength component characterizing the geometrical roughness of the twill fabric.
This wavelength is characteristic of the twill fabric during its use. The users of the
twill fabrics very often feel the characteristic vibration caused by the rubbing of two
parts of the fabric. Thus, this main wavelength component is a sensorial characteristic
of the fabric.

Knitted fabrics
A set of 19 knitted fabrics has been subjected to surface roughness testing. The
fabrics belong to three structural categories: single jersey, double jersey and
interlock. The three kinds of knitted fabrics were constructed using conventional

Figure 10.
FFT in multiple directions
(twill fabric)
and compact cotton yarns. In many cases each category of the fabrics was available Structural
in their raw form, after the dyeing procedure and after the application of a softening
agent. The density of the courses and wales has been kept constant within the three
characterization
categories of knit. The linear density and the twist multiplier of the yarns were the of textile fabrics
same for all the specimens. There will be various samples deriving from the
combination of the main parameters: Knit, yarn technology, dyeing stage.
The specimens will be subjected to laboratory surface roughness tests. The 455
surface roughness data have been processed using the sliding window averaged
FFT method and the final results are given in the Table I. The wavelengths of the
main spectral components were detected and they become an instrument for the
evaluation of the surface roughness structure.
The results show a very good stability on the geometrical roughness characteristics
of the various samples belonging to the same knit group. The coefficient of variation
between the wavelengths of the main spectral components within each group is very
low between 0.7 and 2.3 per cent. The low values of the CV per cent indicate that the
different yarn production technologies and the different finishing stages do not
influence significantly the wavelength of the main spectral component of the
geometrical roughness signal. Table II contains the CV per cent of the three main
categories of the fabrics grouped depending on their knit.
A further interesting result derived from the processed data is the correlation
between the normalized wavelength of the main spectral components in the courses

KNa Fb SPc pd1 (mm) pe2 (mm) X1f Yg1 X2h Y2i

1 SJ D K 0.714 0.526 0.269 0.353 0.377 0.671

2 SJ D K 0.714 0.526 0.279 0.353 0.391 0.671
3 SJ S K 0.714 0.526 0.281 0.339 0.393 0.644
4 SJ S C 0.714 0.526 0.292 0.357 0.409 0.678
5 SJ G C 0.714 0.526 0.278 0.338 0.389 0.642
6 SJ G K 0.714 0.526 0.273 0.335 0.382 0.636
7 SJ G K 0.714 0.526 0.274 0.323 0.384 0.614
8 DJ D C 0.909 0.625 0.257 0.300 0.283 0.480
9 DJ D K 0.909 0.625 0.294 0.303 0.323 0.485
10 DJ S K 0.909 0.625 0.298 0.306 0.328 0.490
11 DJ G K 0.909 0.625 0.326 0.274 0.359 0.438
12 DJ G K 0.909 0.625 0.308 0.276 0.339 0.442
13 DJ G C 0.909 0.625 0.289 0.279 0.318 0.446
14 IL D K 0.769 0.769 0.341 0.319 0.443 0.415
15 IL D C 0.769 0.769 0.337 0.344 0.438 0.447
16 IL S C 0.769 0.769 0.334 0.337 0.434 0.438
17 IL G C 0.769 0.769 0.356 0.304 0.463 0.395
18 IL G K 0.769 0.769 0.336 0.313 0.437 0.407
19 IL G K 0.769 0.769 0.323 0.322 0.420 0.419
Notes: aKnit: single jersey (SJ), double jersey (DJ), interlock (IL). bFinishing: gray(G), dyed (D),
softened (S). cSpinning technology: conventional (C), Compact (K). dCourse spacing ( p1). eWale spacing
( p2).fWavelength of the main spectral component in the course direction (X1). gWavelength of the main
spectral component in the wale direction (Y1). hNormalised wavelength of the main spectral component Table I.
in the course direction (X2). iNormalised wavelength of the main spectral component in the wale Knitted fabric surface
direction (Y2) roughness data
IJCST and wales direction. As shown in Figure 11, the points on the graph are grouped in
16,5 certain areas, which are the characteristic of the knit of the fabric. All the specimens of
the knitted fabrics give correlation points of their main wavelength, which belong to an
area essentially different from the rest ones.

Conclusions
456 The geometrical roughness characteristics of the fabrics provide information on their
structural characteristics. The data obtained from the KES-FB4 instrument were
subjected to digital signal processing techniques in order to get the spectral
characteristics of the geometrical roughness measurements. The components of higher
power and thus dominating in the resulting spectrum give useful information about the
structure of the fabric and they influence the final behaviour of the fabric in terms of
hand or other sensory characteristics.
The principle and the results are encouraging although the method has to be
verified on a bigger variety of fabrics of different properties and structural
characteristics to strengthen the correlation between the spectral results to the
structure of the fabric and the effects of its geometrical roughness.

CVcourse (per cent) CVwale (per cent)

Table II.
CV per cent of the Single jersey 0.74 1.22
positions of the main Double jersey 2.29 1.48
wavelength components Interlock 1.08 1.49

Figure 11.
Correlation of the
normalised main
frequency components
position (X2 vs Y2)
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