Tensile, Creep, and After Creep Tensile Behaviors of Three-Dimensional (3D) Woven Green Fabrics for Sustainable Packaging

Synthetic-materials-induced environmental burdens have shifted the focus of scientists towards sustainable packaging solutions. Three-dimensional (3D) woven fabrics offering superior mechanical durability are a promising solution to the problem. However, this area has remained unattended by researchers in the field of packaging technology. Hence this study focuses on development of warp, weft, and bidirectional interlock 3D woven fabrics for packaging applications. Aiming at mechanical durability, tensile and creep characterization have been carried out, depicting the strong influence of interlacement patterns on mechanical properties. Increasing the number of interlacements decreased tensile and creep strength, such as the lower weftwise tensile strength offered by weft interlock 3D, and vice versa for warp interlock. While elongations were found higher in interlocking directions, creep loadings carried out at 30% and 60% of breaking loads revealed unique after tensile creep behaviors. Weftwise tensile strength decreased after creep; warp interlock 3D entailed 42% decrease in tensile strength after creep. However, warpwise tensile strength was noticed to be higher for weft interlock 3D, owing to alignment of yarns during applied creep, while a decrease was noticed in elongation percentages. In a nutshell, the engineered 3D interlacements entailed successful tailoring of mechanical properties, paving a pathway towards high-strength sustainable packaging.