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Why Clothes Don't Fall Apart: Tension Transmission in Staple Yarns
Patrick B Warren1, Robin C Ball2, Raymond E Goldstein3
1Unilever R&D Port Sunlight, Quarry Road East, Bebington, Wirral CH63 3JW, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
The problem of how staple yarns transmit tension is addressed within abstract models in which the Amontons-Coulomb friction laws yield a linear programing (LP) problem for the tensions in the fiber elements. We find there is a percolation transition such that above the percolation threshold the transmitted tension is in principle unbounded. We determine that the mean slack in the LP constraints is a suitable order parameter to characterize this supercritical state. We argue the mechanism is generic, and in practical terms, it corresponds to a switch from a ductile to a brittle failure mode accompanied by a significant increase in mechanical strength.
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