Fabric formation and characterization Six honeycomb woven fabrics were fabricated by a
SL8900S rapier loom (CCI TECH INC.). There are 20 harness frames on the rapier loom. Two frames were used for weaving selvages and the rest were employed for weaving the honeycomb structure.
Therefore, the weave repeats of the six honeycomb woven fabrics are all made of 18_18 warps_wefts.
Weft yarns in three of them are made of pure cotton yarns and the other three are cotton/spandex core spun yarns. Six plain woven fabrics were set as references for the corresponding honeycomb weave structures. The yarn specifications for the 12 fabrics are listed in Table 1. The designed fabric specifications and setting parameters on the loom are listed in Table 2. In the fabric manufacturing, the weft density (_w) was set as 17, 23 and 29 picks/cm, respectively, for the sensitivity study of the two kinds of fabrics (18_18 warps_wefts honeycomb weave and 2_2 warps_wefts plain weave), as shown in Table 2. The warp density value (_j, ends/cm) was constant (21 ends/cm) due to the fixed number of yarns on the weaver’s beam, the reed number and the number of ends per dent. The warp and weft were all plied yarns to undertake the high tension during the weaving process.
The fabric dimensions, including weave repeat length and width, fabric thickness and fabric weight per area, were measured five times for each average value and standard deviation after 24 hours of standard condition balance. Fabric cross-sections in both the warpside and weftside were observed by a microscope
(Leica M165C).