STRUCTURAL INVESTIGATION OF UV AGED TENT FABRICS

Emergency tent is a basic human need and a critical determinant for survival and coping in the majority of crises. There are many reasons people might need temporary shelters. Natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, fires, and tornados are some of them. Millions of people around the globe have had their lives disrupted by these disasters. The environmental health conditions faced by people are largely affected by the conditions where they are obliged to live in the days, weeks or months after a disaster. The quality of emergency tent has a great impact on human health and well-being. Therefore, mechanical properties of a tent fabric will be vital for sufferers. Since these tents are used under natural environment, tent fabrics have to face with natural exposures that force the mechanical strength of the fabric. One of the most important of these effects is UV exposure. It is known that fabrics lose their strength under UV light. In this study ammonium dihydrogen phosphate (ADP) coated 100% cotton tent fabrics were aged under UV exposure (35 w/m2) for 0, 250, 500 and 750 hours. After UV exposure, tensile strength, tear strength, air permeability tests were conducted to tent fabrics. Furthermore, FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) analysis and SEM analysis were held to investigate the degradation mechanism.

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