The influence of Arenga pinnata fibres – reinforced orientation on tensile and fextural strength of epoxy matrix based composite

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the tensile and flexural strength of Arenga pinnata fibres-epoxy as composite material. The Arenga pinnata fibres were soaked in 5 % NaOH solution for 2 hours. The specimens of the composite were prepared with different orientations Arenga pinnata fibres (i.e. 0° + 0°, 0° + 45°, 0° + 90°, and 45° + 90°). The Arenga pinnata fibres were mixed with epoxy and hardener also at the fibres volume percentage of 40%. The hand lay-up (HLU) process in this experiment was to produce a specimen test. The dimension of the specimen test for the tensile and flexural test was adapted from the ASTM D-3039 and ASTM D-7090 03 respectively. Results from the tensile test and flexural test of Arenga pinnata fibres reinforced epoxy composite, show the orientation 0° + 0° has the maximum of tensile and flexural strength, which are the value of tensile and flexural strength are 77.385 MPa and 76.38 MPa respectively. The tensile test shows that the fibres orientation parallel to the tensile force will give a maximum strengthening effect. The bending test shows that the orientation of the fibres across the compression force will produce maximum flexural strength.