Indian Journal of Textile Research

Vol. 12, September 1987,pp.149-151

BUndle Tenacity of Jute ,Fibres at Different Test Lengths

AlAHIRI
Indian Jute Industries' Research Association, Calcutta 700 088, India

/ Received 18 May 1987; accepted 1 June 1987

,

From a study of the variation in fibre bundle tenacity (S) at different gauge lengths (L) an empirical relationship,
S=A(L+ I)B, has been established between these two factors in the case of jute where A is the,intrinsic strength at zero
gauge length and B, the degree of imperfection in fibres. The values of A and B have lteen determined for various kinds

of white and tossa jute fibres. No significant correlation is found between A and B;,--
Keywords: Bundle tenacity, Jute fibre

1 Introduction able weight and appropriate length (which was con-

The strength of textile strands decreases with in-
crease in test length owing to the presence of weak
spots distributec;l over the length. The variation in
strength with test length was first studied by Peirce1
in his famous weak link theory. Empirical formulae
representing logarithmic' relationships between
strength and test length have been established by
some earlier workers for single cotton fibres2 and
cotton fibre bundles3• Variation in the bundle tenac-
ity of wool fibres at different test lengths was studied
by Iyer and Ananthakrishnan4 and found to follow
the same type of logarithmic relationship as in the
case of cotton fibres. In the case of jute, some work
on the effect of test length on bundle tenacity has
been reportedS', Fibre tenacities when plotted
against log test lengths showed a linear relationship.
No empirical relationship between the two factors
has, however, been established in the case of jute.
In this work, an attempt has been made to esta-
blish a mathematical relationship between fibre ten-
acity and test length from a study of the variation in
fibre bundle tenacity at different test lengths for var-
ious grades of white and tossa jute. Fibres were test-
eo in bundle on an Instr{)n machine based on con-
stant rate of extension at test lengths ranging from
0.5 to 10 cm. ' other textile fibres the weakest point'lies within a
2 Materials and Methods
Different ISI grades of white jute (Corchorus cap-
sularis), such as W2-W6, and tossa jute (Corchorus
olitorius), such as 11)2, ID4 and ID5, were used.
Bundle tenacity of raw fibres was determined on an
Instron universal tensile tester at six different test
lengths, viz. 0.5,1,2,5,7.5 and 10 cm. For testing at
a particular test length the bundles of fibres of suit-
veniently chosen so as to hold 'the bundle of fibres
between a particular grip length) were prepared
from the middle portion of the fibre strand. These fi-
bre bundles were conditioned at 65% RH and at
temperature 25-27°C for about 72 h in a desiccator.
For all the test lengths, the rate of sample extension
used was 10% with full scale sensitivity of 20 kg. Af-
ter breakage the individual bundles were again con-
ditioned for about a week prior to the determination
of weight of each bundle in an electrical Mettler bal-
ance. Fifty such bundles were tested at a particular
test length. From the load extension curve, the
breaking loads of fibre bundles were read off which
were then divided by the corresponding weight for
determining the bundle tenacity.
3 Results and Discussion
The bundle tenacities of different kinds of jute fi-
bres at 0.5,1,2,5,7.5 and 10 cm test lengths (Table
1) show that tenacity (S) decreases with increase in
test length (L) in agreement with the weak link theo-
ry. In the case of jute, the weak link effect cannot
however, be explained in molecular terms alone (e.g.
as an orientation phenomenon) because oithe multi'"
cellular nature of the fibres. While in cotton, wool or
single cell, in jute the weak spots spread over differ-
ent cells including the intercellular "Cement" - the
middle lamella.
The log-log plot of the two quantities, viz. log (S)
against log (L+ 1), gives a straight line (Fig. 1). The
relationship may be represented by the equation
S=A (L+ l)B, where A is the intrinsic strength at
zero gauge length and B, the degree of imperfection
which provides a measure of the rate at which the

149
 10 37.1
26.64
14.37
23.74
32.06
22.44
26.00
16.44
23.43
19.61
16.14
-0.909
-0.987
-0.969
-0.998
-0.979
1.0
26.45
13.42
26.01
12.89
11.54
22.90
29.83
14.95
16.06
12.44
23.87
29.93
16.81
24.83
27.05
34.78
13.41
30.00
25.78
16.88
31.08
24.14
17.63
29.12
20.11
19.32
19.05
19.03
17.96
19.87
17.75
-0.992
-0.978
-0.961
2.0
5.0 -
30.43
27.47
33.65
29.48
30.98
37.13
28.89
28.15
20.05
32.28
14.18 3'B'
'A' of
-0.459
-0.339
-0.301
-0.312
36.1
40.9
33.1
35.2
-0.375
-0.289
-0.456
-0.348
(22.58)
(23.24)
(22.52)
(12.73)
(24.26)
(36.06)
(33.14)
(21.23)
(19.81)
(27.91)
(17.55)
(21.20)
(23.23)
(25.74)
(30.44)
(20.33)
(32.45)
(19.33)
(26.60)
(21.74)
(25.98)
(30.49)
(27.80)
(15.93)
(20.64)
(18.71)
(19.42)
(16.58)
(25.27)
(21.47)
(21.62)
(17.49)
(18.14)
(14.51)
(19.37)
(11.75)41.7
42.7
-0.360
27.70
7.5 33.9
2.8
Intrinsic
imperfection
(27.40)
(13.62)
(20..18)
(27.37)
log(L+ strength
Degree
1) Tenacity (gltex) INDIAN J. Corr.
at gauge length
lEXT. coeff.
(cm) log Svs
RES., VOL. 12, SEPTEMBER 1987
(gltex)

Table 1 - Results of Bundle Tests

0
~ 40l- 418260 • zero gauge length while in the latter case it isnot. Al-
~'u 020 (e)
Gauge l~ngth(L), em
Fibr~- T04
Fibr~-T04
-;;.
\~ r 30
25
'" = -0.992)
• ( b) most the same order of correlation is obtained when
15
S is plotted against log L over the range of gauge
length values studied but the log-log plot is preferred
because of its applicability to other textile fibres.
The degree of imperfection for different jute fi-
bres varies from - 0.29 to - 0.46 (Table 1), while
for cotton6•7, it varies from - 0.3 to - 0.6 and for
wool8,from - 0.25 to - 0.44. The intrinsic strength
or maximum strength (A) for raw cotton6 varies
from 34.7 to 49.1 gltex, while for jute, it varies from
32.8 to 42.7 gltex for the fibres studied.
10 cotton, a negative correlation is found6 to exist
between intrinsic strength A and degree of imperfec-
tion B, implying thereby that the intrinsically strong-
Vl
00
1'5 er cottons tend to have fewer imperfections along
o their length. In jute also, there is a negative correla-
tion ( - 0.43) between these two factors, the correla-
tion, however, is found to be statistically insignifi-
1·3 cant. The concept of intrinsic strength does not have
the same meaning in jute as in cotton. Jute being a
1-2 multicellular fibre, its cells are cemented together la-
o 0·2 0'4 0'6 0,8 1'0 1·2 terally and longitudinally and it is the combined ef-
log (l+1 ) fect of the multiple cells which gives rise to intrinsic
Fig. 1 - Plots showing (a) the typical curvilinear relationship strength even at zero gauge length for jute.
between bundle tenacity and gauge length, and (b) the linear rela-
tionship between log Sand log (L + 1) in TD4 fibre
Acknowledgement
strength falls with increase in gauge length. The logic The author is grateful to Dr U. Mukhopadhyay,
behind choosing (L+ 1) instead of L as the inde- Head, Physics Division, IJIRA, for valuable sugges-
pendent variable (as done in the case of other textile tions and to Dr S R Ranganathan, Director, IJIRA,
fibres too) is that in the former case, S is defined at for permission to publish this paper.
150

'r 1~"'11" I' HI 1'" T 1 I

 LAHIRI: BUNDlE TENACITY OF JUTE FmRES AT DIFFERENT TEST LE.NGTIIS

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(1964) 193.
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4 Iyer K R Krishna and Ananthakrishnan K Y, IndianJ Text Res, lization treatments on the strength length gradient of col-
5 (1980) 24. ton, M.Sc thesis, Bombay University, 1973.

151