Review of optimisation of advanced textiles using the design of experiment methodology: part II: fibre-reinforced polymer composites and advanced treatments of textiles

The aim of Part II of this review article is to continue providing a concise overview of the Design of Experiment method (DOE) which was started in Part I. Although the DOE method can be used to study variation in process and product quality, it was found that only a limited number of researchers have applied this method to reduce variation. Hence, the focus of Part II is to show how to use this method to reduce process variation and product variability. Further, Part II of this review provides more examples on the use of the DOE method and these examples are different from those in Part I, that is, making and processing advanced textiles and related products. A survey for the application of the DOE method to optimise fibre-reinforced polymer composite materials and advanced treatment of textiles was also presented. The summary included the experimental design of each study, the number of factors and levels used and the results, while constructive critiques were provided to the data analysis methods and conclusions. It is hoped that this review will encourage more researchers and technologists to conduct broad studies using the DOE method to obtain robust and comprehensive results and conclusions.