Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-coated glass fiber fabrics are used for long-lasting membrane structures due to their outstanding mechanical properties, chemical stabilities, and satisfying service life. During their operation time, different environmental impacts might influence their performance, especially regarding the mechanical properties. In this contribution, the impact of water on the tensile strength deterioration was assessed experimentally, providing evidence of considerable but partially reversible loss of strength by up to 20% among the various types of investigated industrially established fabrics.

In the past five decades, reinforced coated textile membranes have been used increasingly as building materials, which are environmentally exposed. Thus, their weathering degradation over the service life must be taken into account in design, fabrication, and construction. Regarding such structural membranes, PVC (polyvinylchloride)-coated PET (polyethylene terephthalate) fabric is one of the most common commercially available types. This paper focuses on the backbone of it, i.e., the woven PET fabric. Herein, weathering of uncoated PET, as the load-bearing component of the composite PET-PVC, was studied. This study assessed the uniaxial tensile strength degradation mechanisms of uncoated PET fabric during artificial accelerated weathering tests. For this purpose, exploratory data analysis was carried out to analyze the chemical and physical changes which were traced by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and molecular weight measurements. Finally, with the help of degradation mechanisms determined from the aforementioned evaluations, a degradation pathway network model was constructed. With that, the relationship between applied stress, mechanistic variables, structural changes, and performance level responses (tensile strength degradation) was assessed.

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The negative impact of water must be considered during the design of architectural coated woven fabrics which are sensitive to water attacks. It is known that the uniaxial tensile strength of glass-PTFE materials does degrade with water attack. This contribution quantifies the possible tensile strength reduction of different types of glass-PTFE materials under various water exposure conditions. This includes not only water exposure of unsealed cutting edges, as they, e. g., exist in weld seams, but also water exposure of the glass fibres through the PTFE coating. Experimental results show that both water exposure methods lead to similar degradation effects. From the acquired values of degradation, strength modification factors have been derived using the principles of the new European Technical Specification prCEN/TS 19102 "Design of tensioned membrane structures".

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<p>The design process of tension fabric structures must consider changes of the material properties due to long-term exposure to the environment. In line with the harmonized view of the Ultimate Limit State verification which is currently developed in the framework of a novel European design standard for membrane structures, a strength modification factor considering ageing effects is proposed to describe the deterioration arising from environmental impacts. The objective of this paper is to broaden the data basis for the long-term behaviour of a typical structural membrane made of PET-PVC material for environmental impacts. In this way, an overview about different data achieved from two practical applications and experimental artificial weathering tests is presented for the destructive effect of weathering on tensile strength of coated woven fabrics. Finally, related weathering-induced ageing modification factors are derived.</p>