Synergisms in the chemical degradation of polypropylene geotextiles - some experimental results

Abstract

Durability ( resistance to degradat ion) is cur rent ly a very important topic of research in geosynthet ics. The exist ing studies about this topic consider most ly the isolated act ion of the degradat ion agents and do not contemplate the interact ions that can occur between them. In this work, some interact ions (synergies) that may exist between some agents/ types of degradat ion of geosynthetics were invest igated. To this end, a non-woven needle-punched polypropylene geotext ile stabilised with 0.2% (w/w) of the addit ive Chimassorb 944 was exposed to several durability tests. Initially, the material was exposed to the isolated act ion of liquids, thermo-oxidat ion (oven-ageing method) and art ificial weather ing. This allowed to evaluate the isolated effect of each of these agent s. In a second stage, the geotext ile was successively exposed to some combinat ions of two of the previous agents, seeking to evaluate the existence of synerget ic effects between them.