A COMPARISON OF LINEAR AND NONLINEAR BENDING MODELS FOR PREDICTING FABRIC DEFORMATION IN AUTOMATED HANDLING

The problem of simulating the laying of fabric on a table is studied in this paper. The non-linear bending properties of fabric are defined by interpolating the moment/curvature relationship measured with the Kawabata system. By using a linear and a non-linear bending model, deformed fabric shapes are predicted and compared with experimental data. The predicted fabric curves agree well with experimental curves. Results show that the non-linear bending model is superior to the linear bending model in predicting the deformation of fabrics with nonlinear bending properties. Both linear and non-linear models can perform equally well in predicting the deformation of fabrics with linear bending properties. The numerical stability of the differential-equation system used in this study is also analyzed. We show that the non-linear model improves the stability of the computational process.