Degradation of polypropylene woven geotextile: tensile creep and weathering

Abstract

Maintaining satisfactory properties in geosynthetics exposed to factors that could lead to their degradation needs to be considered in projects employing these materials. Geosynthetics subjected to tensile creep and weathering can undergo premature degradation over time. It is essential to study the influence of these factors, since they could act simultaneously in some applications. To assess the synergetic effects, frames were developed and four groups of a woven geotextile polypropylene sample were tested. The first and second groups were subjected to tensile creep at 5% and 10% of the tensile strength in conjunction with weathering for 2160 h. The third group was exposed to the same weathering conditions without tensile load. The fourth group was subjected to tensile creep at 10% of the tensile strength in laboratory conditions. Frames were built with a slope similar to the location of exposure to guarantee greater effects of weathering on the material surface. A meteorological station at the site monitored the meteorological parameters. The degradation suffered by the geotextile was determined by comparing tensile strength test results. The results presented show the importance of the constructed frames in assesssing tensile creep and weathering in the field under small loads.