UV Resistance in Thin Film Geomembranes: Accelerated and Natural Weathering Studies

The purpose of this project was to complete a six year natural weathering study on a series of geosynthetics an concurrently complete a 20,000 hour accelerated weathering study. An energy equivalency method was used to establish a rough relationship of approximately 1000 hours of accelerated weathering being equal to one year of natural exposure. This relationship was seen to be consistent with the results of the natural and accelerated studies, as well as to other examples of such relationships in the literature. The 20,000 hour accelerated exposure allowed us to compare the performance of highly UV resistant materials such as 1.5 mm HDPE stabilized with carbon black, and thinner polyolefin geoemembranes stabilized with pigment and additional UV stabilizers. The results of our study suggest that a thinner (0.75 mm) geomembrane can perform equivalently to a 1.5 mm HDPE geomembrane when sufficient UV stabilizing additives are utilized.