Measuring and Interpreting Low-Stress Fabric Mechanical and Surface Properties

In this paper, a nonlinear optimization technique is applied to determine optimal combinations of fabric low-stress mechanical and surface properties for men's suiting materials. The optimization procedure maximizes an "objective function" for handle expressed in terms of the instrumental measurements of fabric properties reported in the first two papers of this series. Empirical relationships between subjectively assessed fabric quality attributes as well as overall handle and the objectively measured properties are used to formulate two optimization problems. Necessary constraints are imposed for the upper and lower bounds of measured properties according to data obtained for over 200 suiting materials. Results are expressed and discussed in the form of mechanical / surface property guidelines for optimizing the handle of medium / heavy and light/ medium weight fabrics corresponding approximately to winter and summer suiting materials, respectively.