Shear test method of architectural coated-fabrics subjected to biaxial tensile loading

VII International Conference on Textile Composites and Inflatable Structures

STRUCTURAL MEMBRANES 2015
VII International Conference on Textile Composites and Inflatable Structures
E. Oñate, K.-U.Bletzinger andB. Kröplin(Eds)
STRUCTURAL MEMBRANES 2015
E. Oñate, K.-U.Bletzinger and B. Kröplin (Eds)

SHEAR TEST METHOD OF ARCHITECTURAL COATED-FABRICS

SUBJECTED TO BIAXIAL TENSILE LOADING

W. J. CHEN*, C. J. GAO, D. X. ZHANG, J. H. GONG

* Space Structures Research Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030, China
E-mail: cwj@sjtu.edu.cn, web page://www.ssrc.cn

Key words: shear test method, loading protocol, shear measurement, biaxial tensile loading,
architectural coated-fabric
Summary. A new test method is proposed for investigation of shear behavior of architectural
coated-fabrics. The cruciform specimen with 16cm width and length of arms with four slits is
used herein, which has 45°of yarns with respect to the loading directions. The loading
protocol is defined to generate cycling homogenous shear stress field, which has half positive
and half negative cycle rather consecutive positive or negative shear stress conditions. The
cycle number is three. Two strain measurements and shear calculation methodologies are
compared with theoretic analysis and testing procedure. The polymer-coated polyester fabric
with PVDF surface finish is used for test validation, the experimental results are investigated
comprehensively, and the effects of shear deformation on shear stress calculation are
evaluated. The present work is proved valuable to further research of shear behavior of
coated fabrics.

1 INTRODUCTION
Tensile fabric structures have been developed over about four decades, and built in some
landmark building over the world. However, broad assumptions are made in simulation of
architectural fabrics used for tensile structures. In particular, fabric shear behavior does not
attract enough attentions, this causes wrinkle and tear because of existence shear deformation
due to complex loading in service and installation as well as patterning manufacture. There
are a few literatures about shear mechanical properties in the past ten years, but the shear
behavior is poorly understood and is not routinely determined yet.

2 Basic Theory of Shear Test Methodology

2.1 Schematic cruciform specimen

The cruciform specimen was firstly used by Blum [12] for shear testing of architectural
fabrics besides, and then employed by Galliot [7] and Bridgens [14] with various size and
different loading protocol. In the case of biaxial extension testing method for elastic constants
of membrane materials, the cruciform specimen is extensively used with various sizes [1, 4, 5,
12, 18-20, 25-28]. As the firstly published standard, MSAJ/M-02-1995, width of arm of the
cruciform is specified 16cm other more [28], that is, the core effective square is 16cm×16cm.
This cruciform is proved valid for biaxial tensile test rather shear test. As trellis frame test, the

544
 W. J. Chen, C. J. GAO, D. X. ZHANG, J. H. GONG

width ranges from 12cm to 30 cm [10, 11]. The width of cruciform once used for shear test
was more 60cm [12], 50cm [7].

Clamp
Width of arm Length of arm

Clamp interval
y Filling

x
Warp

Clamp
Clamp position

Width of arm Length of arm

Fig.1 Schematic cruciform specimen of biaxial shear test (mm)

Therefore, the shape of a schematic cruciform specimen is specified as Fig.1.Slits are cut
along with the arms at intervals 30~50mm. The specimen corners are rounded with a radius
10~15mm. The warp and filling direction is 45°with respect to x-axis and y-axis arms. The
sample should be taken from the part of fabrics which is 1/10 of the overall width from each
edge and excluding more than 10cm from ether edge. The number of specimens should be
more than three.
σy

σw σf
y
∆L1
τ τ
σx σx
90°
L

Filling
τ τ
∆L2 θ
β
90°

L x
Warp σf σw
α

σy

Fig.2 Shear deformation of biaxial shear testFig.3 Planar stress of biaxial shear test
The specimen is assumed in-plane without wrinkle occurrence, the warp yarn and weft
yarn remain perpendicular after small shear deformation.
According to the stress tensor theory, Blum [12, 13] calculated the shear strain as follow.
1
 wf   x 
2

w   f 
(1)

545
 W. J. Chen, C. J. GAO, D. X. ZHANG, J. H. GONG

 wf
where, is the shear strain tensor between warp and filling direction,  x is the tensile


strain in x-axis of loading direction,  w and f are the strain of warp and weft yarn
direction.
From the Eq.(1), the three strain measurements are necessary to be required to calculate the
shear strain from the biaxial shear testing.
The engineering shear strain is commonly used in small or even big deformation range [10,
11, 14, 15], and is also used in this paper. The engineering shear strain is two times of the
tensor shear strain, which is the shear angle between the warp and weft. As shown in Fig.2,
the shear angle is positive while the square is narrowed in y-axis; on the contrary, it is
negative.
From the Fig.2, the deformation in x-axis and y-axis could be written as
 L2   x L
 L1   y L
(2)

where, L2 and  L1 are the deformation in x-axis and y-axis,  x and  y are the strain in

x-axis and y-axis respectively, L is half diagonal length of the square.

From the tri-geometry relationship, the angle  between warp and fill direction can be
calculated
L   L2 1  x

2  arctan( )
2  arctan( )
L   L1 1  y
(3)
The shear angle could be written further
    / 2 (4)
From the Eq.(2) to Eq.(4), only two strains is used, one less than that in Eq.(1). This
simplifies measuring strain of shear testing.
2.2 Shear stress
While applying load to the cruciform specimen, the arms transfer uniform loading to the

core area which has the planar stress field as Fig.3, where  x and y are the stress in x-axis
and y-axis respectively. The dashed line represents the un-deformed state, and the solid line
denotes for deformed state. As corresponding to the deformation defined in Fig.2, the
principal stress and shear stress with respect to warp and weft yarn in deformed state can be
calculated from mechanics of materials.
1 1
 = w  f ( x + y )+ ( x - y ) cos  (5)
2 2

546
 W. J. Chen, C. J. GAO, D. X. ZHANG, J. H. GONG

1    1
=( x - y ) sin  2   
   ( x - y ) sin  (6)
2   2  2

where,
 w and  f are the tensile stress in warp and filling direction, and  is the shear

stress.

Because the shear angle  is assumed small, that is, the angle  is small, then the angle

 is close 90°, cos  0.0 and sin  1.0. The principal stress Eq. (5) and shear stress Eq.

(6) could be simplified further

1
 w = f  ( x + y )
2 (7)
1
= ( x - y )
2 (8)

3 Loading Protocol
Architectural membrane has neglected compressive and bending stiffness, as is required to
be tensile stress state in any service conditions. The shear stiffness and behavior should be
measured and characterized under specific tensile stress. The pre-stress tension is specified
that 3.0kN/m for PTFE-coated glass fiber fabrics and 1.0kN/m for PVDF-coated polyester
fabrics [11].
From the Eq. (5) and Eq. (6), the principal stress and shear stress are generated by the
specific loading in x-axis and y-axis. Blum [12] defined a loading protocol, a consecutive
triangular wave force is loaded in x-axis, and simultaneously a same wave with 180 phase
difference is applied in y-axis.
In normal service condition, the safety of factor (S.O.F) is specified in standard or guide,
however, the S.O.F is specified differently as MSAJ[18], TensiNet[12] and CECS[30]. The
S.O.F set 5 here, the biaxial tensile usually set the maximum tension 1/5 of the smaller
ultimate strengthFu of warp and weft direction of the fabric. The minimum tension Fu/25 sets

to characterize initial prestress [12]. While shear testing, the maximum stress of  w ,
 f x

y
and should be less Fu/5, and the minimum should be over Fu/25, over zero or at least than
critical wrinkle stress.
While applying load to the cruciform, the loading process could be controlled with
extension tension or deformation. Constant rate tension (CRT) 1~10mm/min or
1~10kN/m/min should follow when loading of shear testing. The concrete rate or period of
loading could be set according to particular research goal and fabric properties. The detail
loading steps are specified as follow.

547
 W. J. Chen, C. J. GAO, D. X. ZHANG, J. H. GONG

x-axial Upper limit

Stress / (kN/m)
y-axial
shear stress
Load / (kN.m )
-1

Pretension warp or weft stress

Time / s
Lower limit

0
Time / min

Fig.4 Loading time history Fig.5 the principal and shear stress in warp and weft
Apply load to four arms of the cruciform with tension 1:1 and keep CRT, till the basis
pretension ( B.P ) which should be less Fu/10;
Apply load to x-axis and y-axis in 180 phase difference, the load in x-axis is added to the
upper limit (U.L) which should be less Fu/5, on the contrary, the load in y-axis is reduced to
the lower limit (L.L) which could be over Fu/25, should be over 1.0kN/m, and must be over
zero;
Apply load reversely after the precedent loading, unloading in x-axis and loading in y-axis
to the B. S, and loading and unloading keep synchronously.
Change the loading way in x-axis and y-axis to generate the negative shear field in
cruciform specimen, and repeat the step from 2) and 3) three times or more.
Repeat the steps 2) to 4) three times or more to generate positive triangular shear stress
field wave;
y y
From the Eq.(1) ,The loads (  x and ) and strains (  x and ) are recorded and plotted
for data correlation analysis. The strain is measured with extensometer with 2~4cm base
distance, which is located 1.5cm off the centre of the cruciform. But according to the Eq.(3),
y f
the loads (  x and ) and strains (  w , and  x ) are recorded and plotted for data analysis.
From Eq.(7) and (8), the loading time history defined in Fig.4 shall generate a particular
stress time history as shown in Fig.5. While using Eq.(5) and (6), the principal stresses do not
keep constant and shall have little fluctuating, the shear stresses exhibits little nonlinear
instead of linear triangular wave. Overall, the effective area of cruciform has specific shear
stresses wave and fairly constant tension field, as is necessary to characterize the shear
behavior of architectural fabrics. The shear capacity of the fabrics is dependent mostly on the
tension. Pure shear field of the fabrics can not occur without tension, as is completely
different from the shear investigation of other solid materials.

4 Experimental Results and Analysis of Shear Test

4.1 Specimen and material

548
 W. J. Chen, C. J. GAO, D. X. ZHANG, J. H. GONG

According to the aforementioned work, the cruciform specimen set as Fig.6. The width and
length of the arm are 160mm, and clamp with is 40mm, there are four slits in the arm. There
are 45 of the warp and weft with respect to the loading direction x-axis and y-axis.
The widely used PVDF-Coated architectural fabric Ferrari 1002T2 was used for
experiment validation. The finish surface is polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF), the base cloth is
plain weave made of polyester yarn of HT1100/2200 Dtex, the areal density is 1.05kg/m2, the
coating thickness is 300microns, the total thickness is 0.72mm.

4.2Loading procedure
In the experiment, the loading was specified as Fig.7, the base pretension was 3.25kN/m,
the upper limit and lower limit were 5.25kN/m and 1.25kN/m respectively, and the periodical
was 10min, and there were three cycles loading.

40 160 160 200

y
Weft
R=10
45°

Slit
Warp
Clapping

Fig.6 Cruciform specimen of biaxial shear test (Unit: mm)

x-axial
6
4 Stress / (kN/m)
y-axial
5
3 shear stress
Load / (kN.m )

warp or weft stress

-1

4
2
3
1
2 0
1000 2000 3000 4000
1 -1 Time / s
0 -2
0 1000 2000 3000 4000

Time / s -3

Fig.7 loading time history Fig.8 Shear and principal stress respect to warp and weft

Fig.8 Shear stress and principal stress respect to warp and weft of biaxial shear test
While applying the loading as Fig.7, the shear stress and the principal stresses respect to
warp and weft shall be generated as Fig.8 which is calculated from the Eq. (8), there are two
6

549
 W. J. Chen, C. J. GAO, D. X. ZHANG, J. H. GONG

obvious stages, the first stage there is no shear stress, the second is three shear full cycle with
half positive shear and half negative shear, the periodical is also 10min and the maximum
shear stress is 2kN/m.

4.3 Experimental Results and Analysis of Shear Test

1) Calculation of shear strain

During the shear testing, two methods of shear strain measurement were adopted. The first
method was used two extensometers to measure the deformation in x-axis and y- axis. The
second method was used three extensometers to measure the deformation in warp, weft and
x-axis direction.
 x and  y strain-time history curves were showed in Fig.9.  w and  f strain-time

curves were showed in Fig.10. Comparing two figures, the strains in x-axis and y-axis are
observed much bigger than that of the warp and weft, at least one-order higher, and the
strain-time curves exhibits smooth and regular, it is easy and robust to measure. The warp and
fill strain are too small, and is expected much more sensitive to the extensometer accuracy
and testing uncertainty.

0.20
x-axial
0.15 y-axial

0.10

0.05
Strain

0.00

-0.05

-0.10

-0.15

-0.20
0 1000 2000 3000 4000

Time/s

Fig.9 x-axis and y-axis strain-time curve Fig.10warp and weft strain-time curve

Fig.11 shear strain(Eq.3)-time curve Fig.12 shear strain(Eq.1)-time curve

The engineering shear strain which was calculated by Eq(3) showed in Fig11.and shear
strain tensor which was calculated by Eq(1) showed in Fig.12. The engineering shear strain is

550
 W. J. Chen, C. J. GAO, D. X. ZHANG, J. H. GONG

equal to twice the shear strain tensor. The maximum engineering shear strain is 0.224 and the
shear strain tensor is 0.122. Although two values were very close, the engineering shear strain
is more reliable.

2) Shear stress-strain curves

Normal stress was measured in x and y direction firstly, and then the shear stress could be
calculated according to Eq.(6). Without considering the impact of α, Eq.(8) can be used to
calculate the shear stress. Fig.13 shows the normal stress in x and y direction.Fig.14 shows the
shear stress which is calculated by Eq.(8).

Fig.13the normal stress in x and y direction Fig.14 shear stress

Shear stress-strain curves can be generated from the previous results.Fig.15 shows the
shear stress-strain curves. As can be seen, a striking difference was observed that the first
cycle slope of curve is greater than the latter curve. But, with the increase of cycle times, the
shear stress-strain curves became increasingly consistent.
Shear stress / (kN/m)

2 Loading

1
Unloading
-0.3 -0.15
Unloading 0 0.15
0.1 0.3
Shear strain
-1

Loading
-2

Fig.15 shear stress-strain curves

3) Stress and strain in material direction

It is difficult to measure the strain in material direction. According to the stress tensor
theory, shear strain in material direction can be calculated by Eq.(1). The stress in material

direction can be calculated by Eq.(7) and the result of  x and y has been showed in Fig.13.
The shear stress and stress in material direction was showed in Fig.16. The average value of

551
 W. J. Chen, C. J. GAO, D. X. ZHANG, J. H. GONG

warp and weft stress is 3.15kN/m if the influence of shear angle is ignored and the test value
is thinner than theoretical value.

(a) (b)
Fig.16 The shear stress and stress in warp and weft direction (a) without shear angle
variation (b) with shear angle variation

4) The effect of shear angle

When the effect of shear angle was taken into account, Eq.(5) was used directly to
calculate the stress of warp and fill and Eq.(6) was used to calculate the engineering shear
stress. The shear stress and stress considering shear angle in warp and weft direction were
showed in Fig.16b

0.00

0.0
relative difference

relative difference

-0.02

-0.1

-0.04

-0.2
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000
Time (s) Time (s)

Fig.17 relative difference of shear stress (a) and the stress in warp and weft direction(b)
The Eq.(6) minus the Eq.(8) can get the difference between considering shear angle and
not considering. Then dividing the difference by the result of Eq.(6) can get the relative
difference. Similarly, the relative difference of stress in warp and weft direction can be got by
Eq.(5) and Eq.(7). Fig.17(a) shows the relative difference of shear stress, the maximum is 4%.
Fig.17(b) shows the relative difference of stress in warp and weft direction, and the maximum
is 19.1%. The result shows the shear angle does not much affect the shear stress, but the stress
in warp and weft direction were greatly affected by the shear angle.

5 Conclusions

552
 W. J. Chen, C. J. GAO, D. X. ZHANG, J. H. GONG

A biaxial shear testing method is specified, test protocol is defined, as well as calculation
method. Biaxial shear testing was carried and investigated comprehensively. The test shows
the strain in warp and fill directions are much smaller than that in x-axis and y-axis directions,
which are difficult to measure accurate. Therefore this paper recommends a measurement of
engineering shear strain. Engineering shear strain can be calculated by Eq.(1). This method
only needs two extensometers to measure the strain in x and y direction and the shear strain
results are more accurate. The shear testing is performed under the specific tension and the
pure shear testing is invalid for tensile fabrics. The shear angle is observed that has fairly
impact on the stress in warp and weft, and little impact on the shear stress.

Acknowledgements
The present work is supported by National science foundation (Granted No. 51278299,
51478264).

References
[1] Chen W. J. Design of Membrane Structure Engineering. 2nd edition, China Building Industry Press,
Beijing, 2006.3.
[2] Horst Berger. Form and function of tensile structures for permanent buildings. Engineering
Structures, 1999, 21:669-679.
[3] Gosling P. D., Bridgens B. N., Albrecht A., et al. Analysis and design of membrane structures:
Results of a round robin exercise. Engineering Structures, 2013, 48: 313-328.
[4] Bridgens B. N., Birchall M. Form and function: The significance of material properties in the
design of tensile fabric structures. Engineering Structures, 2012, 44: 1-12.
[5] Michael Seidel. Tensile Surface Structures: A Practical Guide to Cable and Membrane
Construction. Ernst & Sohn, a Wiley Company, Berlin, Germany, 2009.
[6] Galliot C, Luchsinger R H, The shear ramp: A new test method for the investigation of coated
fabric shear behavior-part I: Theory. Composites: Part A. 2010, 41(12): 1743-1749.
[7] Galliot C, Luchsinger R H, The shear ramp: A new test method for the investigation of coated
fabric shear behavior-part II: Experimental validation. Composites: Part A. 2010, 41(12): 1750-
1759.
[8] Harrison P, Clifford MJ, Long AC. Shear characterization of viscous woven textile composites: a
comparison between picture frame and bias extension experiments. Composite Science Technology,
2004;64(10–11):1453–65.
[9]Harrison P, Wiggers J, Long AC. Normalization of shear test data for rate independent compressible
fabrics. J. Composite Material, 2008, 42(22): 2315–44.
[10] Cao J. Akkerman R. Boisse P. et al. Characterization of mechanical behavior of woven fabrics:
experimental methods and benchmark results. Composites: Part A. 2008, 39(6):1037–53.
[11] MSAJ/M. Standard of the membrane structures association of Japan. Testing Method for In-plane
Shear Stiffness of Membrane Material. Japan: Membrane structures Association of Japan, 1993.
[12] Blum R, Boner H, Némoz G. Testing methods and standards. In: Forster B, Mollaert M, editors.
European design guide for tensile surface structures. TensiNet; 2004. p. 293–322.

10

553
 W. J. Chen, C. J. GAO, D. X. ZHANG, J. H. GONG

[13] Boner-Balz H, Blum R. The mechanical behavior of coated fabrics used in prestressing textile
engineering structures: theory, simulation and numerical analysis to be used in a FEM-model. J. of
IASS 2008, 49(1):39–47.
[14] Jackson A L, Bridgens B N, Gosling P D. A new biaxial and shear protocol for architectural
fabrics[C]// Proceeding of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS)
Symposium. Valencia: 2009: 2167-2179.
[15] Colman A. G., Bridgens B. N., Gosling P. D., Jou G. T., Hsu X. Y. Shear behavior of architectural
fabrics subjected to biaxial tensile loads. Composites: Part A. 2014, 66: 163-174.
[16] Virginio Quaglini, Carola Corazza, Carlo Poggi. Experimental characterization of orthotropic
technical textiles under uniaxial and biaxial loading. Composites: Part A. 2008, 39:1331-1342.
[17] Pu Xue, Xiongqi Peng, Jian Cao. A non-orthogonal constitutive model for characterizing woven
composites. Composites: Part A. 2003, 34: 183-193.
[18] Galliot C, Luchsinger R H, A simple model describing the nonlinear biaxial tensile behavior of
PVC-coated polyester fabrics for use in finite analysis. Composite Structures. 2009, 90: 438-447.
[19] Bridgens, B.Gosling, P.; Jou, G.-T.; Hsu, X.-Y. Inter-laboratory comparison of biaxial tests for
architectural textiles. Journal of the Textile Institute, 2012, 103(7):706-718
[20] Bridgens, B.N. Gosling, P.D. A new biaxial test protocol for architectural fabrics. Journal of the
International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures. 2004, 45(146):175-181.
[21] Zhu D J, Mosher B, Vaidya A, Rajan S D, Mechanical behaviors of Kevlar 49 fabric subjected to
uniaxial, biaxial tension and in-plane large shear deformation. Composites Science and Technology.
2013, 74: 121-130.
[22] Quaglini V, Corazza C, Poggi C. Experimental characterization of orthotropic technical textiles
under uniaxial and biaxial loading. Composites: Part A. 2008, 39(8):1331–42.
[23] Lebrun G, Bureau MN, Denault J. Evaluation of bias-extension and picture frame test methods for
the measurement of intra-ply shear properties of PP/glass commingled fabrics. Composite
Structure. 2003, 61(4):341–52.
[24]Vysochina K, Gabor A, Bigaud D, Ronel-Idrissi S. Identification of shear stiffness of soft
orthotropic textile composites: Part I–development of a mixed method for shear elastic constant
identification. J. Ind. Text. 2005;35(2):137–55.
[25] Chen S, Ding X, Yi H. On the anisotropic tensile behaviors of flexible polyvinyl chloride-coated
fabrics. Textile Research Journal. 2007, 77(6):369–74.
[26] Chen J W, Chen W J, Zhang D X. Experimental study on uni-axial and biaxial tensile properties
of coated fabric for airship envelope. Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites, 2014, 33(7):
630-647.
[27] Chen J. W., Chen W. J., Zhang D. X.. Study on biaxial tensile properties of coated for airship
envelope. Journal of Southeast University. 2014, 30（4）: 467-474.
[28] MSAJ/M-02, Standard of Membrane Structures Association of Japan, Testing method for elastic
constants of membrane materials, Membrane Structures Association of Japan, 19995.
[29] Zhang L. Chen W.J., Dong S. L., Mechanical properties analysis of architectural PVDF/PES
fabrics with uni-tensile and bi-axial test. Spatial Structures, 2012, 18(3): 41-48.
[30] Technical Specification for Membrane Structures, CECS: 154, 2014.

11

554