Textiles structural engineering

Use Heating pads (combined with glass fiber), protection clothing, polyester and epoxy composites for jet engine components, spacecraft, compressor blades, airframe structure, electrodes for sparkhardening metals, flame-proof textile products, engineering thermoplastics. 

ETFE-foils as a fluorine-polymer material differ fundamentally from textile membrane materials in terms of their thermal-mechanical as well as building-physics behaviour. This chapter first introduces the construction forms and variants of ETFE-foil structures and provides an overview of the development of ETFE-foil constructions from an architectural perspective. Subsequently, the morphological structure of ETFE and the manufacturing process as well as the material behaviour and load-bearing characteristics of ETFE-foils are outlined. The final section discusses future development potentials and the future use of ETFE-foil constructions in structural engineering. 

A spectacular example of a ridge and valley textile structure, 320 m in length, covers the central concourse of Denver Airport Terminal (1994) and is intended to mirror the snow-capped Rocky Mountains in the distance (Brown, 1994). This is a double-layer membrane used to improve the thermal and acoustic performance of the space (Berger, 2000, pp. 220-221). It is particularly employed to reduce the impact of aircraft engine noise on the interior. As Fig. 7.12 shows, here the distinct contrast between the bright membrane (bright, even though it is double-layer) and the duller surfaces at concourse level can clearly be seen, as discussed previously in Section 7.6.2. 

Nonwovens are textile structures with non-regular structure and surface, which enable a pre-orientated growth of cells later on structures (Fig. 2). Nonwovens have comparable fibre structures to natural connective tissue and are well-known in tissue engineering, because of their mazy structure and good water absorptivity [4-7]. The characteristic on the nonwoven is due to un-exact consistence surface structure. Nonwovens have non-regular build-up. 

Ko FK, Advanced textile structural composites, Moran-Lopez JL, Sanchez JM eds.. Advanced Topics in Materials Science Engineering, Plenum Press, New York, 1993. 

There has been a rapidly growing interest in structural applications of textile reinforced composites over the past few decades. This interest can be explained by advantages that composites have over other materials used in structural engineering, such as the high stiffness and strength that can be achieved at low weight and manufacturing cost. The prediction of mechanical properties of composites is complicated by the necessity to take into account ... 

Apart from the normally accepted textile products, heat and fire resistant textiles find use in engine insulation (e.g. ceramic structures around combustion chambers), reinforcements for composites (e.g. carbon fibre reinforcements for major structural elements), aramid honeycomb reinforcements for wall and floor structures, and fuselage acoustic and fire/heat insulation, each of which has its own fire performance requirements. Associated with all these tests and materials or composites are toxic fire gas and smoke requirements, and so the choice of fibre and textile structures will be influenced by the need to pass the minimum emission standards for gases including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, hydrogen chloride and hydrogen cyanide. 

Morales, A., Pastore, C., 1990. Computer aided design methodology for three-dimensional woven fabrics. In Buckley, J.D. (Ed.), Fiber-Tex 1990, The Fourth Conference on Advanced Engineering and Textile Structures for Composites, Clemson, SC, August 14—16, 1990, NASA Conference Publication 3128, pp. 85-96. 

Textile structures with embedded active agent—loaded microcapsules have found their application in many fields such as medicine, cosmetics, and wellness. Their role will grow with an increase in peoples needs and advances in disciplines such as materials science, textile engineering, pharmaceutical engineering, and transport phenomena. 

In contrast, spider silk is devoid of sericin and hence does not evoke the same biological or immunological reactions. Thus, spider silk has better biocompatibility and is a preferred biomaterial for suture applications. It has also been studied as a material for regenerative nerve conduits to promote peripheral nerve regeneration [33]. Silk s unique mechanical properties coupled with its ability to be fabricated into different textile structures enable its use in tissue engineering scaffolds that mimic the mechanical properties of native tissues. For example, silk filaments have been converted into a braided rope stracture that acts as a scaffold for the regeneration of anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL) [34]. 

The textile industry still constitutes one of Europe s most relevant industrial sectors for both the economy and society. The very latest trend in textile and linked industries is to create miscellaneous new products which possess the potential of interacting with the surrounding environment through active feedback. This class of new interactive material is termed intelligent textile structures or smart textiles. In order to make interactive fabrics available at the industrial level it is necessary to apply a multidisciplinary approach. The route to develop and optimise multifunctional material involves in the same way textile engineering and colloid chemistry. The complexity of the production process for modern composite materials is a real challenge to textile engineering but the fundamentals of interfacial and colloid science are indispensable to characterise and control the... 

The fourth part, embracing the last three chapters, is focused on bioapplications. Chapter 15 outlines various bioprocesses for smart textiles and clothing, and Chapter 16 concentrates on tailor-made intelligent polymers for biomedical applications. Chapter 17 describes the applications of scaffolds in tissue engineering, where various textile structures are used for cells to grow. 

Du W C, Tao X M, Tam H Y and Choy C L, Optical Bragg grating sensors in smart textile structural composite . Proceeding of the 4th International Conference on Composite Engineering, ICCE/4, Hawaii, USA, 1997, 289-90. 

Rajamanickam R, Park S and Jayaraman S, A structured methodology for the design and development of textile structures in a concurrent engineering environment , J. Textile Inst., 1998, 89(3), 44-62. 

Scaffolds play a central role in tissue engineering. Textile structures are particularly attractive to tissue engineering because of their ability to tailor a broad spectrum of scaffolds with a wide range of properties. Preliminary studies clearly demonstrate the suitability of textile scaffolds for tissue engineering purposes. There is no universal scaffold that meets the requirements of the various tissues of the human body. Further systematic study is necessary to design an optimal scaffold for each tissue application. 

As a matter of fact, as we shift our focus to practical solutions that can be used in the construction sectors for civil engineering and geotechnical applications, we can see two different kinds of optical fibres that have a wide application as far as their integration in textile structures is craicemed ... 

---