Utilization of palm fiber waste as reinforcement composite material for the manufacture of public housing panel

Abstract

The composite technology develops very rapidly, such as in sports equipment as well as means of transportation both land, sea, and air, construction, and in the space. Palm fiber is natural fiber used as reinforcement in composites. This study aims to investigate the effect of variations in the percentage of fiber volume on tensile strength and impact toughness of palm fiber composites. The research material used palm fiber with a density of 1.3 gr/cm 3 , matrix unsaturated polyester 157 BQTN-EX and MEXPO hardener. The variation on this research was a composite of palm fiber with the fiber content of 10%, 20% 30% and 40%. Tensile testing refers to the ASTM D3379 standard, impact testing refers to the ASTM D 5942 standard, while specimen making refers to ASTM D 3039. The result showed the increase of fiber content on fiber content 30% and 40% composite increased the tensile strength and impacted toughness. The impact toughness of the composite palm fiber on fiber content 40% higher than on fiber content 30%, because the matrix bonded the palm fiber well. The observations of failure mode surface composite shown the broken composite and fiber pull out.