Simulation of Textile Materials – an Innovative Approach for Further Development of the Drape Test Using a Spherical Testing Body

Leading from the currently changing product development in the clothing industry and the increasing significance of virtual prototyping through 3D simulation, the requirements to the digital material behaviour and especially the textile draping behaviour are rising to correspondent exactly with the original fabric. The drape test marks a common procedure to investigate the textile drape. The remaining data is used for clothing simulation softwares as a basis for material selection. In this paper, the role of the sphere as a possible testing body will be investigated and its potential to describe the textile draping behaviour more differentiated. It will be clarified if and how the drape test with a spherical testing body depicts a further development of the Cusick drape test using a disc through investigating the implementation of new parameters and differences between the testing results. For this purpose, a drape test experiment in an virtual environment will be modelled and carried out as well as the measured results and image results evaluated. The test will be carried out in VStitcher with six digitized woven testing materials of different weaving types (plain and twill) and weights (64-314 g/m²) using an avatar constructed in Blender. Several measuring methods will be provided for the evaluation of the rendered pictures. Already at a visual review, the image results from the drape test using the sphere are showing a very high diversity between the different materials allowing estimations of high or low drapability, fold formation behaviour, main fold directions, stiffness and suppleness while the disc test’s images look similar for all materials and such direct estimations are not possible. Additionally, the measured results are more nuanced for the sphere, showing material- (and warp/weft-) specific trends and allowing direct statements concerning the drape behaviour. Additionally, the length to each fold’s starting point can be captured as a new parameter. The presented testing variation can be understood as a far more practical and realistic development of the virtual Cusick drape test for the use in clothing companies.