Abstract:
The durabilities of textile materials, which during their usages come into direct contact with soil, have tra-
ditionally been measured using the soil burial test (BS 6085: 1992). Using the aforementioned standard, coat-
ed textile materials are normally buried under standard soil conditions for 28 days, while non-coated tex-
tiles for 14 days and the deterioration assessed. The duration of this test is too long and it discourages many
business people and manufacturers, to whom urgency is the key and therefore opt to skip this test. This
study investigated the eff ects of diff erent soil treatments on the strengths of canvas materials during the
soil burial test. By adding cow manure, chicken manure and potato peelings with the controlled addition of
water, the changes were investigated in the strengths of the canvas materials buried in the soils. The results
obtained during this research work indicated that the addition of water (in a controlled manner) can lead
to a change of 10% to 90% in the strengths of the buried canvas materials, according to the diff erent types
of manure. When considering the diff erent types of manures (with water additions) there were strength loss-
es of 70%, 80% and 90% for non-cultivated soil, soil with cow dung, and soil with chicken manure respec-
tively. Similar trends were also recorded for strength losses in the weft direction. A strength reduction fac-
tor which considered the reductions in strengths of the canvas materials exposed the diff erent treated soils
compared to the non-treated soil (without water), indicating that chicken manure (with the addition of wa-
ter) can produce a strength reduction factor of 8.32, whilst the non-cultivated soils (with the addition of wa-
ter) gave a strength reduction factor of 6.
