Compression creep behaviour of jute-polypropylene blended needle-punched nonwoven

Abstract

This paper discusses the compression creep behaviour of jute-polypropylene blended needle-punched nonwoven. It is essential to know the compression creep behaviour of the needle-punched fabrics too, because of their various applications like geotextiles and carpets. Needle-punched fabric samples were prepared based on the three factors, three levels Box Behnken design of experiment to study the individual as well as interaction effects of process parameters of fabric weight, needling density and blend proportion of jute and polypropylene fibre blend on fabric thickness and compression creep. This study reveals that the initial thickness of fabric decreases prominently with the increase in needling density at low fabric weight and has hardly any effect at high fabric weight (450 g/m²). However, around 43% increase in fabric thickness occurs at high jute content level (60%). At low fabric weight, the effect of the needling density on compression creep is highly prominent when polypropylene content is more than 50% in the blend. However, its effect is negligible when jute content is higher than 50% in the blend. The creep initially decreases with the increase in fabric weight up to a certain limit and thereafter it increases. The minimum value of compression creep of around 14% is obtained at 375 g/m² fabric weight with 150 punches/cm² needling density at the level of 60% jute content.