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PREDICTION OF FABRIC PROPERTIES OF VISCOSE
BLENDED KNITTED FABRICS BY FUZZY LOGIC
METHODOLOGY

Ismail Hossain, Altab Hossain, I. A. Choudhury,
Abu Bakar
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering
University of Malaya (UM),
50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,
Hasib Uddin
Textile Research Laboratories APS,
APS Group,
Gazipur, Bangladesh


ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this study is to develop a fuzzy
model for the prediction of fabric GSM of viscose
blended knitted fabrics as a function of yarn count
and knitting stitch length. The most significant key
factors yarn count and knitting stitch length affect the
GSM of viscose knitted fabrics are very non-linear.
Hence, developing a prediction model by using
mathematical or statistical approach is very difficult
task. Conversely, artificial neural network and
neural-fuzzy models are trained using vast amounts of
experimental data which are also time consuming
process. Fuzzy logic (FL) methodology on the other
hand, is a promising modeling tool which performs
extraordinarily very robust in a non-linear complex
field with least trial data. The prediction model was
found to be valid by correlation analysis. The mean
relative error, correlation coefficient and goodness of
fit from the predicted values were found to be 4.56%,
0.995 and 0.999 respectively.The results show very
good performanc of the prediction model.
KEYWORDS Fabrics GSM, Viscose, knitted
fabrics, Prediction, FL
I. INTRODUCTION
Prediction of knitted fabrics properties is one of the
most fascinating topics in the knit textile
manufacturing due to the increasing demand of
diversified product quality and costing. Recently, the
demand of knitwear items especially viscose
knitwears like T-shirts, shirts, sweaters, blouses,
underwear, casual wear, active wear and sportswear
etc. have increased rapidly due to lower price and
exclusive quality characteristics such as elasticity,
drape, wrinkle resistance, softness and high comfort
compare to woven fabrics[1-4].
The Fabric GSM however, is one of the most
important physical properties among all the qualities
of viscose knitted fabrics. Basically, GSM (gm/m
2
) is
the weight per unit area of fabrics and GSM is directly
related to the fabric weight. For readymade garments,
costing of a garment depends on the fabrics weight or
fabrics GSM. It has been seen in practically that
garments price increase with the increase of fabrics
GSM. The reason for that basic component of a
garment is fabric. Moreover, buyers placed purchase
order in the export oriented garments and textile
industry on the basis of garments pieces for a specific
fabrics GSM. In case of export quality garments,
buyer will not accept any piece of garment out of that
specified requirement. Further, the products with
higher GSM than buyers requirement will increase
the consumption of fabrics for target garments pieces.
Accordingly, garment cost will increase. Therefore,
control of fabrics GSM for the knitted fabrics is an
important issue in the knitting industry.
The present textile knitting industry is facing
tremendous challenge, due to the short life cycle of
product development, increasing product diversity,
high demand of product quality as well as product
costing in the global market. Moreover, the process
automation in knitting industry is going slowly due to
the complication of knitting process. Generally
speaking, GSM of knitted fabrics depends on yarn
properties, machine parameters and fabric density.
However, for viscose knitted fabrics, yarn count and
knitting stitch length are the most important factors
affecting the GSM of final fabrics. Since, relationship
between yarn count, knitting stitch and fabrics GSM
is very non-linear and has mutual interactions with
each other that's why, it is very difficult to apply
conventional models namely mathematical models or
statistical models to predict the fabrics GSM before
production [2- 4]. On the other hand, artificial neural
network and neuro-fuzzy models involve with
enormous amounts of experimental data for network
training, which is challenging and time consuming
process to collect from the knitting industry [2, 5].
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In this context, fuzzy logic methodology is well-
designed modeling tool rather than conventional,
ANN and neuro-fuzzy models since fuzzy logic can
execute extremely well and capable in linking
multiple inputs to single out in a very non-linear
complex domain with lowest amounts of experimental
data [5-7]. Unlike statistical regression model, fuzzy
logic needs no information or prior estimation of any
mathematical models in advance [3, 5]. Moreover,
unlike ANN and neuro-fuzzy models, fuzzy logic
does not require huge amounts of input-output data
[5-7]. Furthermore, fuzzy logic is used to resolve the
problems in which descriptions of behavior and
observations are imprecise, vague and indecisive [5].
A few application of fuzzy logic approach related to
this research has been discussed as follows:
Majumder and Ghosh developed fuzzy logic expert
system for yarn strength modeling [5]. Jahmeerbacusa
et al. applied fuzzy method for controlling pH in
exhaust dyeing [8]. Hung and Yu discovered fuzzy
controller for controlling dye bath concentration, pH
and temperature in cotton fabric dyeing [9]. Nasri and
Berlic presented evolutionary fuzzy logic approach
for modeling polyester dyeing process [10]. Tavanai
et al. proposed fuzzy regression approach to model
the color yield in polyester dyeing as a function of dye
concentration, time and temperature [11]. Therefore,
the main objective of this work is to develop a fuzzy
logic model based on mamdani approach for the
prediction of fabric GSM of viscose blended knitted
fabrics where yarn count and knitting stitch length are
input variables, which has not so far been reported in
the published literature. Moreover, this fuzzy
prediction model can be applied as a decision making
support tool for knitting engineer to select and adjust
knitting process parameters to achieve desired fabric
GSM before knitting.
II. METHODLOGY
In this research investigation, 25 viscose fabrics
blended samples were knitted with 20 denier elastane
yarn and according to (Table I) knitting process
parameters on FUKUHARA single jersey circular
knitting machine (Model FXC-3S), having 30 inches
diameter, 24 gauges (needles/inch) and 90 yarn
feeders. After knitting then, all fabrics samples were
subjected to proper heat setting, dyeing and finishing
processes. After production, all the fabrics samples
were conditioned firstly on a flat surface for at 24
hours prior to testing under standard atmospheric
conditions at relative humidity (65 2 %) and
temperature (20 2 C). Then, the fabric GSM
(gm/m
2
) of each sample was tested according to
ASTM D-3776 test standard.
TABLE I. RANGE OF KNITTED FABRIC
VARIABLES
Process Parameters Values
Yarn count (Ne) 20 24 30 34 40
Knitting Stitch length
(mm)
2.6 2.8 3.0 3.2 3.4
III. FUZZY PREDICTION MODEL
DEVELOPMENT
(a) Structure of Fuzzy logic System
The artificial intelligence fuzzy logic is the most
successful methodology in various research
investigation in the world which is a branch of
mathematics developed by Zadeh at the University of
California in 1965 [12, 14].

Figure 1 Basic configuration of fuzzy logic system
[13-14].
Fig.1 shows the basic configuration of a fuzzy logic
system which comprises four principal components
[9, 13-14]. The four principal components are as
follows:
i) Fuzzification interfaces- The selection of input
and output variables is the first task in fuzzification
interfaces. After selection, numeric variables have to
define in linguistic terms such as low, medium, high.
Next, membership functions for all input and output
variables have to be created. The central concept of
fuzzy set theory is membership functions, which
represent numerically to what degree an element
belongs to a set. The triangle membership function is
the simplest and most often used among all. [5, 7, 9,
13-14].
(ii) Knowledge base It consists of a data base and a
rule base. In the fuzzy knowledge base system,
knowledge is represented by if-then rules [5, 7, 9 and
14]. Fuzzy rules are the heart of fuzzy logic system
which determines the correlation between input-
output of the model. For instance, in the case of two
inputs P and Q and one output Z, which have the
linguistic variables of low and medium for P and Q
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respectively and medium for Z, then development of
fuzzy inference rules can be demonstrated as follows:
Fuzzy rule: If P is low, and Q is medium, then Z is
medium.
(iii) Decision making logic It plays a central role in
a fuzzy logic model due to its ability to create human
decision making and deduce fuzzy control actions as
per the information provided by the fuzzification
module by applying knowledge about how to control
best the process. Most commonly, Mamdani max-min
fuzzy inference mechanism is used because it assures
a linear interpolation of the output between the rules
[5, 7, 9, and 13]. For instance, in case of two-inputs
and single-output fuzzy system, it can be shown as
Fig.2

Figure 2 Fuzzy inference mechanisms
(iv) Defuzzification interface The defuzzification
interface combines the conclusions reached by the
decision making logic and converts the fuzzy output into
precise crisp numeric value as control actions. Most
commonly, center of gravity (centroid) defuzzification
method is used, since this operator assures a linear
interpolation of the output between the rules. In this
stage, output membership values are multiplied by their
corresponding singleton values and then are divided by
sum of the membership values to calculate Output
crisp
as
follows:
( )
( )

=
i
i
i
i i
b
crisp
Output

(1)
where b
i
is the position of the singleton in the i
th

universe, and
(i)
is equal to the firing strength of truth
values of rule i [5,7,13-14].
(b) Application of Fuzzy Logic System
In this study, two knitting process parameters, namely
yarn count (YC) and stitch length (SL) were used as
input parameters and fabric GSM (FG) of the knitted
fabrics as the output parameter. For fuzzification, the
input variable YC and SL were given five possible
linguistic variables namely very low (VL), low (L),
medium (M), high (H) and very high (VH). In this
study, five membership functions for YC and SL have
been selected based on system knowledge, experts
appraisals, and experimental conditions and arbitrary
choice. Nine linguistic variables namely, very very
low (VVL), very low (VL), low (L) low medium
(LM), medium (M), high medium (HM), high (H),
very high (VH) and very very high (VVH) were used
for the output variable FG, so that the expert system
could map small changes in fabric GSM with changes
in the input variables. In present research
investigation, triangular shaped membership functions
have been used for both input and output variables
due to their accuracy [7]. The units for the input and
output variables are: YC (Ne), SL (mm) and FG
(gm/m
2
). For the input and output parameters, a fuzzy
associated memory was created as regulation rules
based on expert knowledge and previous experience.
A total of 25 rules have been formed. Some of the
rules are shown in Table II as follows:
TABLE II. Fuzzy rules
Rules Input variables Output
variables
YC SL FG
Rule 1 VL VL VVH
.
Rule 12 L M H
.
Rule 25 VH VH VVL

There is a level of membership for each linguistic word
that applies to that input variable. Fuzzifications of the
used factors are made by aid follows functions.

( )
)
`

s s
=
otherwise
i i
i YC
; 0
40 20 ;
1 1
1

(2)
( )
)
`

s s
=
otherwise
i i
i SL
; 0
4 . 3 6 . 2 ;
2 2
2

(3)
( )
)
`

s s
=
otherwise
o o
o FG
; 0
370 140 ;
1 1
1

(4)
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Where i
1,
is first input (YC) and i
2
is second input (SL)
and o
1
is output variable (FG) showing in Eq. (2)-(4).
Prototype triangular fuzzy sets for the fuzzy variables,
namely yarn count (YC) and knitting stitch length (SL)
and fabric GSM (FG) are set up using MATLAB
FUZZY Toolbox. The membership values obtained
from the above formula are shown in Figs. 2-4

Figure 3 Membership functions of input variable
SL

Figure 4 Membership functions of input variable
YC

Figure 5 Membership functions of output variable
FG
To demonstrate fuzzification process, linguistic
expressions and membership functions of yarn count
(YC) and stitch length (SL) obtained from the
developed rules and above formula (Eq. 2-4) are
presented as follows:
( )

>
s s

s s

=
35 ; 0
35 30 ;
30 35
35
30 25 ;
25 30
25
1
1
1
1
1
i
i
i
i
i
YC
M

(5)
( ) { } 35 / 0 ..... .......... 30 / 1 .. .......... 25 / 0 + + + = YC
M

( )

>
s s

s s

=
2 . 3 ; 0
2 . 3 0 . 3 ;
0 . 3 2 . 3
2 . 3
0 . 3 8 . 2 ;
8 . 2 0 . 3
8 . 2
2
2
2
2
2
i
i
i
i
i
SL
M

(6)
( ) { } 2 . 3 / 0 .. .......... 0 . 3 / 1 ...... 8 . 2 / 0 + + + + = SL
M

In defuzzification stage, truth degrees () of the rules are
calculated for each rule by aid of the min and then by
taking max between working rules. To comprehend
fuzzification, an example is considered. For crisp input
YC=30 Ne and SL=3.0 mm the rules 13 is fired. The
firing strength (truth values) of the one rule 13 is
obtained as follows:
( ) ( ) ( ) { } ( ) { } 1 1 , 1 min , min
13
= = = SL YC
M M
o
Consequently, the membership function for rule 13 is
obtained as follows.
( ) ( ) { } FG
L
FG , 1 min
13
=

Rajasekaran and Vijayalakshmi [15] have mentioned
that in many circumstances for a system whose output is
fuzzy, it can be simpler to obtain a crisp decision if
output is represented as a single scalar quantity. Using
Eq. (1) with Fig. 5 the crisp output of FG is obtained as
190.
(c) Statistical methods for comparison
The prediction ability of accuracy the developed system
has been investigated according to mathematical and
statistical methods. In order to establish the relative
error () of formation, the following equation is used:
n y
y y
n
i
i
i i
% 100
1

=
=
.
c (7)
In addition, goodness of fit () of the predicted system
is calculated as follows:
( )

|
|
.
|

\
|

=
=
=
.
n
i
i
n
i
i i
y y
y y
1
2
1
2
1 q (8)
Where n is the number of observations, y
i
is the
measured value,
.
i
y is the predicted value, and y is
the mean of measured (actual) value. The relative
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error provides the difference between the predicted
and measured values and it is necessary to attain zero.
The goodness of fit also provides the ability of the
developed system and its highest value is 1.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
(a) Operation of fuzzy prediction model
The graphical operation of the fuzzy logic model has
been shown in Fig. 6. For instance, if YC is 30 Ne and
SL is 3.0 mm, then all twenty five fuzzy rules are
evaluated parallel to find the fuzzy output fabric
GSM, which is190 g/m
2
. Using MATLAB the fuzzy
control surfaces was developed as demonstrated in
Fig.7. It can serve as a visual depiction of how the
fuzzy logic expert system operates dynamically over
time. The figure shows the mesh plot for the above
example case, showing the relationship between yarn
counts (YC) and knitting stitch length (SL) on the
input side and fabric GSM (FG) on the output side.
The surface plots illustrated in Fig.7 depict the impact
of yarn count and knitting stitch length on fabric
GSM. Fig.7 and Fig.8 show the fabric GSM decreases
with increases of yarn count and knitting stitch length
and vice versa. It is observed that fabric GSM
increases with the decreasing of stitch length because
of increasing number of loops per unit area. A similar
phenomenon has been observed for yarn count on
fabric GSM as shown in Fig 7 and 8. Figures show
that fabric GSM increases with the decreasing of yarn
count due to the increase of yarn linear density which
indicates the coarseness of yarn. From this
investigation, it can be obviously seen that yarn count
and stitch length have the significant effect on fabrics
GSM in the knitting process. As GSM increases
further than an optimum level, fabric become stiffer
and less extensible, hence resulting in fabrics hole.
Therefore, is very important to maintain optimum
level of knitting parameter in the knitting process to
get required GSM with good quality fabrics.
(b) Validation of the prediction model
The prediction model has been validated by
comparing and analyzing the actual and predicted
values of fabric GSM. The correlation between the
measured (actual) and predicted (FLES) values of
fabric GSM have been depicted in Fig. 9. The
correlation coefficient (R) from the actual and
predicted values of fabric GSM was found to be 0.995
(R
2
=0.990). Therefore, it can be concluded that the
developed fuzzy prediction model can explain up to
99.0% of the total variability of fabric GSM. The
mean relative error between the actual values and the
predicted values of fabric GSM was found to be
4.56% which less than the acceptable limits of 5%.
The relative error gives the deviation between the
predicted and experimental (actual) values and it is
required to reach towards zero. The goodness of fit
was found to be 0.999 which was found to be close to
1.0. The goodness of fit gives the ability of the
developed system. The results indicate very strong
prediction accuracy of the developed model.

Figure 6. Graphical operation of the fuzzy
prediction model

Figure 7 Control surfaces of the fuzzy inferring
system

Figure 8 Effect of yarn count and stitch length on
fabric GSM
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Figure 9 Correlation between actual and predicted
values of fabric GSM.
V. CONCLUSION
In the present study, a fuzzy model has been
developed based on the yarn count and knitting stitch
length as input variables and fabrics GSM as output
variable for the prediction of fabric properties of
viscose knitted fabrics. The Model validation is
assessed by means of different statistical error criteria.
The correlation coefficient was found to be 0.995, the
mean relative error was found to be 4.56 % and the
goodness of fit was found to be 0.999 from the actual
and predicted values of fabrics GSM. The results
indicate a very strong ability and accuracy of the
fuzzy prediction model. Therefore, it can be positively
acknowledged that fuzzy prediction model can be
applied as an efficient tool to predict the fabrics
properties of viscose knitted fabrics satisfactorily.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are grateful to the University of Malaya
for providing the support for this project under the
grant PG048-2013A. The authors are also thankful to
the Management of Textile research laboratory APS,
APS Group, Gazipur, Bangladesh for providing the
laboratory facilities for this research work.
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