Durability and Aging of Sealants

The aim of the project has been to examine how fundamental factors causing aging affect mainly the deformation characteristics of sealants. The factors which have been examined are temperature (heat), moisture, alkaline water, ultraviolet (UV) light, and ozone. Furthermore, the effect of natural aging, that is, the effect of natural climate combined with forced joint width variations, has been studied. The effect of the factors has been studied on two polysulfide-based sealants, two polyurethane-based, three acrylic-based, and one oleoresinous-based sealant.

The temperature is the aging influencing factor that has been found to have the greatest effect on the deformation characteristics of the sealants. But it is impossible to find a general connection between accelerated aging in heat and natural aging for different types of sealants. Where a couple of the sealants are concerned there are some connections outlined between accelerated heat aging and natural aging. Ozone had a great influence only on the polysulfide-based sealants.