Electromechanical analysis of length-related resistance and contact resistance of conductive knitted fabrics

Conductive fabrics usually exhibit two types of electrical resistance: the length-related resistance and contact resistance. The length-related resistance increases with the applied extensile force, whereas the contact resistance decreases with the contact force. The resistance of conductive knitted fabrics could be modeled by the superposition of the length-related resistance and contact resistance. Three experiments were conducted to investigate the resistance of conductive yarns: two overlapped conduct yarns and conductive knitting stitches under unidirectional extensile forces, respectively; and the corresponding empirical equations were developed. The relationship of the resistance, tensile force, fabric length and width were established. The fitting curves with high coefficient of determinations (>0.94) and low standard errors (<0.18) given by the modeling equations were achieved. Therefore, the proposed model could be used to compute the resistance of the conductive knitting fabrics under unidirectional extension.