Pengaruh Orientasi Serat Terhadap Sifat Tarik Komposit Poliester Berpenguat Serat Pisang

Kristomus Boimau

Abstrak

Natural fibers are increasingly in demand as a reinforcing for polymer composite materials because they are easily recycled, lightweight, inexpensive, and renewable and environment friendly. This study aims to determine the effect of fiber orientation on the tensile properties of polyester composite reinforcing banana fibers. The materials used are woven banana stem fibers and a polyester matrix. Fiber is obtained from old banana stems, then the fibers are woven into sheets dimension 20 cm x 25 cm. Furthermore, the fiber sheet is immersed in an alkaline solution with a solution concentration of 5% for 3 hours. After soaking in an alkaline solution, the fibers are washed with clean water so that the fibers are free from alkaline effect. The orientation of the fibers used were [0/0/0], [0/45/0] and [45/0/45]. Furthermore, the composite was molded using the hand ly up method and pressing for 24 hours. The composition of the fiber and matrix mixture is based on the Rule of Mixture (RoM), with a fiber weight fraction of 15%. The test specimens are made according to ASTM D638-02 standard and tested used tensile test equipment. The results of the tensile test showed that the highest tensile strength was obtained in the composite reinforced by the fiber treated with NaOH and the fiber orientation [0/0/0] as 14.2 MPa. Meanwhile, the lowest impact strength was obtained in the composite reinforced by untreated fibers with fiber orientation [45/0/45] is 8.6 MPa