a little -- little -- bit of progress
'Updates' might be a bit of a misnomer, given that... there's really not much to be updated on, here. Seriously, I've gotta admit that secondary research for this project has been tough. There's definitely a difference between being able to research something out of interest, and being able to take coherent notes on it. Strangely enough, this project has really made me realize that a lot of times I set out to do research, I rarely actually find the answers I was looking for. Most of the time, school or life gets in the way, or I end up distracted by a different question that I've deemed more interesting.
Also, I've been pretty shocked by how little information I can find now that I'm actively looking for it. I guess a lot of the time, I feel like I'm constantly reading/hearing about something, and so I assume that there's information everywhere. Oftentimes, that's simply not the case -- especially for something that I normally study casually (i.e. using non-scientific sources). With that in mind, I have kind of given up a little bit on only using scientific sources -- while I will continue to try to find scientific sources, or at least use them to corroborate evidence/theories, I can't pretend that I will only use them.
the influence of ply number and orientation of ply on tensile strength (Anto, 2019)
strength depends on ply number
with increased number of plies, the value of stiffness also increases
stiffness value is very high for 0 degree ply orientation
less displacement occurs when the degree of ply is smaller (?? might still have time to experiment with this. might.)
0 degree is much more stable; other degrees are more similar to each other
?? so might be tough to experiment with
12 more handspinning tips (spin-off, 2017)
plying increases strength and abrasion resistance
11 handspinning tips (spin-off, 2017)
there is a minimum 'magic number' of fibres in the cross-section of any strong yarn
30 fibres
a thick, structurally sound yarn must be made up of many plies to attain thickness
individual fibers comprising a bulky yarn are not well secured in twist, which increases abrasion and pilling
8.3.1 spinning methods (overview)
ring-spun: most widely used
fibres are twisted around each other to give strength to the yarn
rotor-spun yarn: similar to ruing-spun and made from short staple fibres
more regular and smooth, but weaker
twistless yarn: fibres are held together by adhesives
often laid over a continuous filament core
wrap-spun yarn: made from staple fibres bound by another yarn
usually a continuous man-made filament yarn
can be made from other short of long staple fibres
core-spun yarns: have a central core that is wrapped with staple fibres
there's a lot of other interesting stuff here, but it's doubtful that any of it would wind up being relevant (??)
rope (Britannica, 2014)
it's called torsional balance, not 'the thing, you know?'
the constructional factor that can most influence strength is the degree of twist
the greater the twist, the lower the strength (which i still do not?? comprehend??)
repeated loading in tension will have no adverse effect on rope strength
might actually make it stronger by inducing better mutual adjustment of yarn and strand tensions. unless you break it.
cable wire rope (Britannica, 2018)
number of pieces of wire twisted together to form a strand; then a wire rope
strands are twisted about a core rope
provides a firm cushion for positioning the wires in the strands
maintains a firm rope structure
provides some internal lubrication when bending stresses are involved
From here, I really need to look more specifically into ply structure. I've found that it's pretty hard to find real information on this (especially since I don't have a background in materials science for more construction-related fields), so I think I'm going to go back and read some studies from my first research post, and then see where I can go from there. I don't yet have a functional equation that I can use to explain my results, so I need to continue researching that.
Some potential avenues that might be helpful are researching rope/cable structure specifically, since they share more similarities with the yarn I'm spinning. Handspun yarn is obviously quite the niche -- most people's knowledge starts and ends with 'didn't Sleeping Beauty die from pricking her finger on a spindle' -- besides the fact that development was largely based on empirical evidence and trial and error. With that in mind, I'm also going to keep looking into instruction for handspinning -- while they most likely won't give me scientific explanations or equations, I think they might give me a better idea of where to start.
To be candid, this project is pretty depressing in terms of secondary research. I picked this topic because I knew that I'd be able to do an experiment for it, and hopefully be able to present primary research. I really didn't consider how difficult it might be to find secondary research -- which I probably should've realized, given that even within the textile arts world, spinning is still incredibly niche.
So. Here's to hoping some better research turns up soon. I will be focusing more on secondary research over the next week, since primary research is almost done and I can take my foot off the gas with regards to that.
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