Effects of weathering on transparent plastics in the tropics

Abstract

The effects of weathering on transparent plastics in the tropical climate of Singapore, as characterized by high humidity and abundance of sunshine were investigated. The polymers under investigation were acrylic(PMMA), polycarbonate(PC) and polyvinyl chloride(PVC). In addition to other characteristics, the directional luminance of the light through the samples was measured after two years of weathering; the results show that bronze acrylic, which is frequently used in roof lights, increases the visual transmission by 10% for which weathering can increase the air-conditioning cooling load. Data from another experiment were analyzed for the light transmission through polycarbonate lenses for luminaires weathered outside in Singapore and modeled with an exponential function to algebraically describe the observed changes undergone by the influences of weathering.