Sensing properties and characteristics of the elastic sensing webbing

Abstract

In this work, an elastic sensing webbing was designed and woven, using conductive yarns as continuous wefts for resistive sensing. With stretch strain of the webbing in the warp direction, weft yarns could move or contact in changed ways, thus the resistance of elastic sensing webbing shows a variation response. In this research, effects of fabric structure, fineness of elastic yarns, and on-machine weft density on sensing were investigated, and the way that conductive yarns work for resistive strain sensing function was observed. Finally, it was efficiently verified that the type of looped webbing selvage is the core reason for sensing, the resistance and sensitivity under 60% strain would be changed with the different variables. The samples with higher on-machine weft density and 4/2 twills had the higher sensitivity, while there is no regular effect of elastic yarn fineness. Generally, this type of elastic sensing webbing could provide a relative ideal performance on sensing with high stress and low strain.