Characterizing the tensile behaviour of woven and composite fabrics under UV exposure

Geotextiles exposed to sunlight undergo a certain degree of UV degradation. In this study, woven and composite geotextiles were subjected to outdoor weathering tests at various exposure levels (i.e., 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 months) to characterize their tensile behaviour. Each month, geotextiles were subjected to tensile tests according to modified ISO 13934 standards. Later, micro-scale approaches were undertaken to analyze the microstructure characteristics of the geotextiles and confirm the experimental results using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Results indicated that woven geotextiles underwent tensile strength degradation and became more brittle after 5 months of UV exposure, which showed the highest degradation of 69.55% for strength retained, followed by composite geotextiles that only indicated a minimal degradation of 94.19% for strength retained. The corresponding strain indicated a more pronounced degradation, with retained strain percentages of 80.74% and 82.63% after 5 months of UV exposure for woven and composite geotextiles, respectively. Surface micrographs of composite geotextiles indicated that the remarkable microcracks began to develop on the polymer surface after the second month and continued to develop after that. Surface degradation of woven geotextiles under SEM was characterized by the loosening of fibre alignment, and this phenomenon was found to become significant after the first month of UV exposure. FTIR analysis of geotextiles revealed a notable chemical structure alteration in the polymer (i.e., polypropylene) that was observed through the formation of peak absorbance in the 1713 cm−1 wavenumber after UV exposure. Overall, the results from all laboratory tests agreed well with each other and this study thus provides clear evidence of the UV degradation of geotextiles in response to outdoor weathering.