• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.151-162
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• 2012

The industry-wide development of digital technologies has also affected the textile and fashion industries immensely. The applications of 3D technology, virtual reality, and/or augmented reality systems have helped to create novel fashion brands based on the marriage of IT and textile/fashion industries. 3D digital virtual clothing systems have been developed to help the textile and fashion industries in terms of the planning, manufacturing, marketing and sales sectors. So far, most of the development effort for the 3d virtual clothing systems has been focused on the woven fabrics. The characteristics of woven fabrics differ from those of knitted fabric. Since the physical structures and mechanical properties of the knitted fabrics are definitely different from those of woven fabrics, the simulation process for the knitted fabrics should follow different approaches. The loops in a knitted fabric deform easily. The deformation results in a readily stretchable fabric appearance. Cloth simulation mostly employs models that approximate the mechanical properties of linear elastic planes. This simulation scheme does not, however, describe well enough the behavior of knitted fabrics, which deviate largely from the linear isotropic material characteristics. This study aims at characterizing the tensile deformation and surface textures of a knitted fabric product. Tensile deformation curves for the wale, course, and bias direction are analyzed. The surface texture of the knitted fabric is analyzed by using a 3-dimensional scanning device.