Compression behaviour of jute-polypropylene blended needle-punched nonwoven under wet conditions

The subject of this paper is the compression behaviour of jute-polypropylene blended needle-punched nonwoven under wet condition. It is essential to know the compression behaviour of the needle-punched fabrics under wet conditions because of its various applications like geotextiles and carpets. Needle-punched fabric samples were prepared based on the three-factor three-level 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 compression properties under wet conditions. Initial thickness, percentage compression, percentage thickness loss and percentage compression resilience are the compression properties considered. The compression properties under wet conditions were compared with their respective dry conditions. This study reveals that most of the wet samples show a slightly higher value of initial thickness, percentage compression and thickness loss than dry samples, irrespective of processing variables, though for compression resilience value it is vice versa. The effect of blend does not have much influence on percentage compression in wet conditions. There is optimum level of needling density (around 250 punches/cm(2)) and blend proportions (around 75% polypropylene) for minimum percentage thickness loss of wet fabric under higher fabric weight. The compression resilience increases with increase in the content of polypropylene in the blend of polypropylene and jute. Optimum compression properties (highest percentage compression and compression resilience with minimum percentage thickness loss) can be achieved at fabric weight of 450 g/m(2) with the combination of around 250 punches/cm(2) needling density and around 75% polypropylene content.