The fourth edition of this handbook includes advances in the understanding of material weathering that have taken place since the previous edition. Serving as a guide to the effects, principles, and practices involved, the Handbook of Material Weathering provides comprehensive, up-to-date information on weathering. It discusses the fundamentals of weathering, biodegradation, stabilization, and test methods and evaluations. In addition to the causes and effects of weathering, effective countermeasures are discussed. The chapter describing the effects of weathering on specific polymers includes especially extensive data.

From the Preface: “...Although the driving force to gain an understanding of what makes materials durable has been and continues to be, greater material durability, it is becoming more apparent that there must be a concern for the depletion of resources and for the influence of materials, particularly discarded materials and their products of degradation, on our environment...This edition contains information on all available conclusive research. The information has been categorized to make retrieval easy but it has also been integrated to demonstrate the potential effects of interactions and their combined effects on materials...”

Target Audience: Designers, manufacturers, test lab personnel, materials engineers, failure and forensic specialists, and others who require an understanding of the effects of weather on materials and products.

Table of Contents:

Photophysics

Photochemistry

Parameters of Exposure

Measurements in Assessment of Weathering Conditions

Climatic Conditions

Methods of Outdoor Exposure

Laboratory Degradation Studies

Weathering Cycles

Sample Preparation

Weathering Data Interpretation — Lifetime Prediction

Artificial Weathering vs. Natural Exposure

Effect of Weathering on Material Properties

Testing Methods of Weathered Specimen

Data on Specific Polymers

Effect of Additives on Weathering

Weathering of Compounded Products

Stabilization and Stabilizers

Biodegradation

Recycling

Environmental Stress Cracking

Interrelationship Between Corrosion and Weathering

Weathering of Stones

Index