Effect of ground weave structure and weft density on the mechanical performance of face-to-face Wilton carpets

The mechanical behavior of carpets is primarily influenced by pile density and ground weave structure. These structural parameters affect compressibility, recovery behavior and overall carpet performance. In this study, the effects of different weft densities and ground weave structures on carpet properties were examined. For this purpose, samples produced with three weft densities (80, 100 and 120 picks/10 cm) and three weave structures (1/2 V, 1 + 1/2 V and 1/1 V) were evaluated in terms of thickness loss and compressibility characteristics under dynamic loading, static loading and compression/recovery tests. Based on the experimental results, an improvement in the recovery ability of pile yarns was observed in all mechanical tests as the weft density increased and the ground weave structure became denser. In the dynamic loading test, thickness loss after 1000 impacts varied between 20.20% and 40.16%; the minimum was obtained from the 120 1/1 sample, while the highest value was recorded for the 80 1/2 sample. In the static loading test, the thickness loss ranged from 6.24% for the 120 1 + 1/2 sample to 29.04% for the 80 1/2 sample, after 24 h recovery period. The resilience values ranged from 47.08% for the 80 1/2 sample to 81.05% for the 80 1 + 1/2 sample. In the compression/recovery test, the lowest percentage compression recovery was obtained from the 80 1/2 sample as 29.73%, whereas the highest value was obtained from the 120 1/1 sample as 72.03%. Similarly, compression work ranged from 129.12 J/m2 for the 80 1/2 sample to 344.57 J/m2 for the 120 1 + 1/2 sample, while recovery work ranged from 36.33 J/m2 for the 80 1/2 sample to 91.66 J/m2 for the 120 1/1 sample. Among the investigated structures, the 1/1 and 1 + 1/2 carpets generally exhibited superior mechanical performance to the 1/2 weave type, while the samples with a weft density of 120 picks/10 cm performed better than those with both 80 picks/10 cm and 100 picks/10 cm. Statistical analyses confirmed that both weft density and ground weave structure had statistically significant effects on thickness loss, resilience, percentage compression recovery, compression work and recovery work (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the findings revealed that the effect of weft density on carpet deformation was dependent on the ground weave configuration.