Good question!There should be a good deal of data on this in the literature
on commercial fabrics. The older issues of the Journal of the Textile
Institute (Manchester) and the Textile Research Journal would be a good
place to start. Some fabrics have peculiar properties: some worsted wools
with twist expand with moisture...so depending upon the fabric and its
processing, you might or might not need to conduct experiments. At SCMRE we
did some biaxial tension tests to see the effect of changes in humidity on
stretched fabrics for mounting textiles. I can send you a copy if you send
me your address  to [log in to unmask] or you can find it in: "So many
countries so many customs": different approaches to textile conservation
International Conference of the ICOM Conservation Committee Working Group on
Textiles, Budapest, Hungary September 11-15, 1995. London: Academic
Projects, 1996-- by Collins, S., M. Mecklenburg, and M. Ballard. "Fabric
Selection and its Relationship to Dimensional Changes in Support Systems for
Constrained Fabric Mounting Devices." Best wishes, Mary Ballard



>>> [log in to unmask] 03/19/03 08:22PM >>>
Is there anybody who knows of data about its physical changes in tensile
strengh and elongation, when a fabric is repeatedly wet and dry?

J. Park

Textile Conservator
Conservation Lab., Relic Division
The National Folk Museum of Korea





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