In the textile industry, fabric hand is one of the crucial aspects that influence the value of fabric. However, the judgement of fabric hand may vary across subjects. Thus, this study proposes to group the subjects based on their evaluation of fabric hand, and the tactile sensations that are dominantly related to fabric hand are investigated. First, a sensory evaluation of eight knitted fabric samples was carried out using 14 verbal expressions of tactile sensation. These 14 verbal expressions were hierarchically classified into three stages which were called as low-order of tactile sensation, high-order of tactile sensation and lastly, fabric hand. After grouping the subjects by using cluster analysis, a principal component analysis was conducted in each stage of tactile sensation to gather the strong correlations of the verbal expressions. Then, the correlations between principal components of each stage were determined by multiple regression analysis. As a result, the study showed that the subjects could be mainly grouped into two. The former group expressed fabric hand as good when the fabric is soft and moist. On the other hand, the latter group defined good fabric hand when the fabric is silky and smooth.

Braided carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs) can be employed in the construction of pressurized vessels to increase performance and reduce overall weight. However, owing to the complex braiding structures resulting from the braiding process, an analysis of the elastic modulus is important as it affects the hoop stress on the pressure vessel. In this study, braided preformed CFRP constructed on a steel cylinder subjected to internal pressure was experimentally investigated using a simple approach that involved estimating the elastic modulus and hoop stress. Five types of braided preformed CFRP with different braiding angles and number of applied layers were analyzed. The elastic modulus and hoop stress can be estimated from these measurements of the internal pressure. The differences in the braided structures result in different strain values and affect the elastic modulus. High braiding angles tend to be more stable against high internal pressure, and exhibit small strain differences and high elastic modulus in the hoop direction. Similar results were observed when additional layers were applied. Increasing the braiding angle and the number of layers can increase the average elastic modulus.