Tensile Strength and Water Absorption of Oil Palm Mesocarp Fiber Reinforced Polyester Composites: Effect of Volume Fraction of Fiber

Abstract

Oil palm fiber has been developed for application of composite reinforcement. This fiber can be produced from the fruit of oil palm like mesocarp and empty fruit bunch fibers. In this paper, the oil palm mesocarp fiber used as reinforcement of composite was focused on the variation of volume fraction of fiber in the composite related to tensile strength and water absorption properties. The variation of volume fraction of fiber includes 10%, 20%, 30% and 40%. The unsaturated polyester was used as a matrix. Prior to the use of fiber, it was immersed in sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) with 12wt % during 120 hours. Composite fabrication method is hand lay-up with compression molding. The composite samples were tested by the tensile and water absorption tests. Then, the fracture of tensile test was analyzed by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). The result shows that the tensile strength of composite increases with increase in the volume fraction. Meanwhile, the percentage of water absorption decreases with rise in the volume fraction.