Model for the prediction of the degradation of polymer materials in a real environment

Abstract

The objective of this work is to predict the biodegradabiliy of polymer materials in the natural environment from laboratory biodegradabiliy data, materials characteristics and environmental conditions. A model from a data processing approach combining both laboratory in vitro tests and in situ field tests was developed. With a neuronal system, the degradation level of a material in a given biotope has been modelled from a laboratory measurement and parameters characterizing the material and the site. We propose two models that allow to predict the rate of degradation of a material in a given environment and this with 86 % of suitable prediction with less of 15 % of error. This result allows us to compare the validity of the routine norm procedure (in liquid medium) with data obtained during real conditions