Study of the Reversal Phenomenon in the Fibrillar Structure of the Cotton Fiber

Abstract

The work presented here is a part of a fundamental study on the nature and origin of structural reversals in cotton fibers and their relation to mechanical properties. Special attention is drawn to the reversal distance distribution. In a first attempt, the observed distribution is adjusted to a combinapon of two Poisson distributions. The rather arti ficial systems which have to be visualized in order to relate the parameters of this com bined distribution with a possible growth model and the fact that no evidence could be found for the existence of two distinct causes for reversal generation, gave rise to certain suspicion about the validity of the proposed adjustment.

A more thorough analysis of the observations leads to the conclusion that the observed frequency distribution shows significant periodicities which are presumed to be inherent in the generation of reversals. The distance between two consecutive modi in the fre quency-distribution curve is of the order of 200-250 microns. From these observations and from information in the literature, a fiber growth model has been sugegsted. If this model can be accepted as true, it shows that between visible reversals there must be places in the fiber with structural properties similar to the structure of the visible reversals.

In order to corroborate this statement, a new and improved technique has been de veloped to perform more than one tensile test on the same single fiber, with jaw space at zero gauge. Sufficient data have been gathered which indicate that the strength ob served between reversals is about 25% higher than the strength of the same fiber at reversals.

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