EFFECT OF ARTIFICIAL AND NATURAL WEATHERING ON INTERIOR POLYMERIC COMPONENTS OF VEHICLES

In this study we are going to measured and analyze solar exposure in the interior part of three different car and the aim of this study is assessing the correlation of Natural and Artificial weathering with degradation of some polymers like PC, PMMA, PP, PS, PET which are the most used inside of these cars. In the first part of this study, we have short summary about the effect of solar irradiation (specifically UV wavelength) on some specific polymers so we will see some definition like Irradiance, Illuminance. With some International standards and special equipment, we can have artificial solar irradiation, subsequently we are going to see the effect of NATURAL and ARTIFICIAL weathering to different polymers. For our examination I need some optical parameter like Color measurement, Gloss, Haze, and Roughness for characterizing surface morphology, Adhesion for mechanical characterization evaluation. The main objective of the second part was extracting some experimental data of our samples which I need for optical characterization and mechanical characterization and topography. I used Spectrophotometer for measuring color changes and haze, and for measuring Gloss of samples I used Gloss meter. For measuring Roughness, I used Profilometer and confocal microscope and for analyzing the Adhesion I used standard Tape which is mentioned in ISO 2409. Finally, for assessing surface topography of samples I used Confocal Microscope. In the result and discussion part I will compare all the data that was extracted from the samples in different situation of Natural and Artificial weathering.