Fractal characters of pore microstructures of textile fabrics

It is found that the pore microstructures of textile fabrics, widely used in the manufacture of fiber-reinforced composites, exhibit the fractal characters. The fractal behaviors are described by the proposed analytical method and measured by the box-counting method for the three different types of textile fabrics: plain woven, four-harness, bidirectional-stitched fiberglass mats. The pore area fractal dimension is derived analytically and found to be the function of the porosity and architectural parameters of fabrics. The results indicate that the fractal characters are isotropic although the fabrics are rothotropic in structures. The theoretical predictions by the proposed analytical model are in good agreement with those from the box-counting method, and this verifies the proposed fractal dimension model. The present fractal analysis may have the potential and significance on fractal analysis of transport properties (such as the permeability, dispersion, thermal and mechanical properties) in porous media.