Mechanical failure of mulberry and tasar silk

Abstract

This article investigates the tensile and twist failure of mulberry and tasar silk filaments. The mulberry and tasar filaments were subjected to uniaxial loading on Instron tensile tester at different rate of extensions and gauge lengths. Furthermore, the number of turns to rupture the silk filaments was tested using a twist tester. The results showed that the mulberry filament has higher tensile and twist strength than that of tasar filament. The SEM photomicrographs of the region of fracture divulged that the tensile and twist failure of mulberry and tasar filaments take place in catastrophic and non-catastrophic modes, respectively.

Keywords

• mulberry silk
• tasar silk
• tenacity
• twist to break
• fracture morphology