Silk fiber stress-strain curve

The abihty of a fiber to absorb energy during straining is measured by the area under the stress—strain curve. Within the proportional limit, ie, the linear region, this property is defined as toughness or work of mpture. For acetate and triacetate the work of mpture is essentially the same at 0.022 N/tex (0.25 gf/den). This is higher than for cotton (0.010 N/tex = 0.113 gf/den), similar to rayon and wool, but less than for nylon (0.076 N/tex = 0.86 gf/den) and silk (0.072 N/tex = 0.81 gf/den) (3). 

Figure 3.7 Tensile stress-strain curves of a variety of different materials steel, cellulose, tendon, and frame silk. Note the high fracture energy (area under the stress-strain curve) of the frame silk fiber. The strain-to-failure of frame silk can be as high as 30% (after Gosline et al., 1986).

Figure 3. Stress-strain curves of silk fibers from tensile testing for 25 mm span length.

Figure 6.4 A comparison of typical stress-strain curves of silk fibers from spider N. pilipes (by forced silking at lOmms , curve a) draglines and silkworm cocoon S. mori (curve b). Spider draglines exhibit a...

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