Electromagnetic shielding effectiveness of woven fabrics containing cotton/metal-wrapped hybrid yarns

Abstract

This paper involves a comprehensive evaluation of electromagnetic shielding characteristics of woven fabrics. The conductive fabrics produced by using cotton/copper-wrapped and cotton/stainless steel-wrapped hybrid yarns in plain and twill weaves were tested in single and double layer structures to determine the electromagnetic shielding effectiveness (EMSE), absorption and reflection values over an incident frequency of 0–3000 MHz. In addition, the shielding effectiveness (EMSE) of these conductive fabric layers was tested under pure cotton fabric. The results indicated that fabrics including copper-wrapped hybrid yarns exhibited EMSE values that increase with increasing incident frequency then decline after a peak value is reached. On the other hand, fabrics including stainless steel-wrapped hybrid yarns showed no sharp peak values, instead; slight peaks were observed. The differences between the EMSE values of plain and twill weave fabric samples were found to be statistically insignificant. The use of fabrics including stainless steel-wrapped hybrid yarns in the layered structures resulted in better shielding effectiveness in a wider incident frequency range when compared to the fabrics including copper-wrapped hybrid yarns. Finally, it was found that the use of conductive fabrics under pure cotton fabric did not interrupt the shielding effectiveness of the conductive fabrics, which can lead to consider the use of layered structures for garments requiring special protective capabilities.