Accelerated weathering of polypropylene geotextiles

This paper reports research about the durability of non-woven geotextiles when exposed to artifi cial weathering conditions [ultraviolet (UV) radiation, rain and dew] on a laboratory weatherometer. The geotextiles were specially manufactured from polypropylene fi bers stabilized with different amounts of the additive Chimassorb 944 and the pigment carbon black. The degradation suffered by the geotextiles was evaluated by tensile tests and by scanning electron microscopy.