This paper studied the relationship between the textile structure of warp knitted hernia repair meshes and their physico-mechanical properties to solve the problem of hernia patch application evaluation and clear the mechanism of hernia patch structure-performance for clinical application. Six different prototypes of large pore meshes were fabricated, including four kinds of meshes with different pore shapes: H (hexagonal), D (diamond), R (round) and P (pentagonal); and two kinds of meshes with inlays: HL (hexagonal with inlays) and DL (diamond with inlays), using the same medical grade polypropylene monofilament. All meshes were designed with the same walewise density and coursewise density. Then the influence of other structural parameters on the physico-mechanical properties of the meshes was analysed. The physico-mechanical properties of these meshes tested meet the requirements of hernia repair, except mesh DL, whose tear resistance strength (12.93 ± 2.44 N in the transverse direction) was not enough. Mesh R and P demonstrated less anisotropy, and they exhibited similar physico-mechanical properties. These four kinds of meshes without inlays demonstrated similar ball burst strength properties, but mesh HL and DL exhibited better ball burst strength than the others. All in all, uniform structures are expected to result in less anisotropy, and meshes with inlays, to some extent, possess higher mechanical properties. And the ratio of open loop number to closed loop number in a repetition of weave of fabric has marked effect on the physico-mechanical properties. Thus we can meet the demands of specific patients and particular repair sites by designing various meshes with appropriate textile structures.

The finite element analysis method (FEM), for its advantages of lower time and economic costing in predicting the mechanical properties of fabrics, was applied to warp-knitted fabrics. In this paper, two bar warp-knitted fabric knitted with wires was used as reflecting mesh antennas. Firstly the loop unit of the metallic warp-knitted fabric was simulated in 3-D by TexGen software. Secondly the 3-D loop unit model was inputted into ABAQUS software to form a model of the metallic warp-knitted fabric sheet for uni-axial tension analysis. Thirdly numerical results were obtained after setting the parameters in ABAQUS. Finally numerical results were verified by uni-axial tensile experiments on the metallic warp-knitted fabric. The results showed that the simulation was in good agreement with the experimental tensile process, where the transfer of yarns between loops when in low fabric elongation and in yarn elongation when in high fabric elongation were simulated by FEM of warp-knitted fabric in the tensile process. Also the same trend of tensile force was found in experiment and FEM results. Therefore it can be concluded that FEM can be used to predict the mechanical properties of warp-knitted fabric with a complex structure.