Tensile behavior of low density thermally bonded nonwoven material

A discontinuous and non-uniform microstructure of a low-density thermally bonded nonwoven material displays in a complicated and unstable tensile behavior. This paper reports uniaxial tensile tests of a low density thermally bonded nonwoven to investigate the effect of the specimen size and shape factor, as well as the cyclic tensile loading conditions employed to investigate the deformational behavior and performance of the nonwoven at different loading stages. The experimental data are compared with results of microscopic image analysis and FE models.