The effects of metal type, number of layers, and hybrid yarn placement on the absorption and reflection properties in electromagnetic shielding of woven fabrics

In this study, stainless steel, copper, and silver wires were intermingled with two polyamide 6.6 filaments through the commingling technique to produce three-component hybrid yarns. The produced hybrid yarns were used as weft in the structure of plain woven fabric samples. The electromagnetic shielding effectiveness parameters of samples were measured in the frequency range of 0.8–5.2 GHz by the free space technique. The effects of metal hybrid yarn placement, number of fabric layers, metal types, and wave polarization on the electromagnetic shielding effectiveness and absorption and reflection properties of the woven fabrics were analyzed statistically at low and high frequencies separately. As a result, the samples have no shielding property in the warp direction. Metal types show no statistically significant effect on electromagnetic shielding effectiveness. However, fabrics containing stainless steel have a higher absorption power ratio than copper and silver samples. Double-layer samples have higher electromagnetic shielding effectiveness values than single-layer fabrics in both frequency ranges. However, the number of layers does not have a significant effect on the absorbed and reflected power in the range of 0.8–2.6 GHz. There was a significant difference above 2.6 GHz frequency for absorbed power ratio. An increase in the density of hybrid yarns in the fabric structure leads to an increase in the electromagnetic shielding effectiveness values. Two-metal placement has a higher absorbed power than the full and one-metal placements, respectively. The samples which have double layers and including metal wire were in their all wefts reached the maximum electromagnetic shielding effectiveness values for stainless steel (78.70 dB), copper (72.69 dB), and silver composite (57.50 dB) fabrics. © The Author(s) 2019