Abstract
The gravitational effect on the forced bending vibration of a fabric strip was studied experimentally and analytically. The transfer function of the vibration and the eigen frequency of the fabric were measured by the vibrating reed method with a sweep oscillation device. The equation of motion of a vibrating reed in the gravitational field was derived, on the basis of which the eigen frequency and vibration mode of the reed were analyzed by a finite-element method for two situations with and without taking into account the gravity effect. Through these works, it was found that, for soft materials as fabrics. vibration could be appreciably affected by gravity, the degree of which increased with the ratio of the sample length to the bending length defined by the cantilever technique for stiffness measurement
