mechanical and surface properties were determined for polyester, cotton, and polyester/cotton blend knit fabrics. the polyester fabric showed a higher resistance to tensile deformation than the cotton fabric, while the blend fabrics showed an intermediate resistance in accordance with the blend level. this behavior was due to better packing efficiency of polyester fibers, resulting in a yarn with a higher modulus. in contrast, the trend was reversed in bending and lateral deformation behavior. this is postulated to be related to higher residual stress in the fabrics due to the different creep behavior of cotton fibers. the compression behavior, friction behavior, and contacting surface fiber counts all point to increasing numbers of surface fibers with increasing cotton content in the fabrics; however, the 50/50 polyester/cotton blend fabric showed almost an identical behavior to the 100 cotton fabric, as was the case with transport properties. 22 refs