The influence of natural weathering on the property of polyester fabric

The effect of natural weathering on the mechanical property of a kind of polyester fabric is studied. An outdoor exposure experiment for polyester fabric in Harbin from November 2009 to June 2010 was performed and several polyester fabric samples were chosen each tow months for simple tension experiment to evaluate their mechanical property variation. The mechanical experiment results show that tensile strength and Young's modulus decrease as the exposure period increases. A damage model is presented to evaluate the degradation of polyester fabric. By comparing with the mechanical experiment, the proposed damage model agrees with the experimental results very well.