Vacuum Effect on Improvement of Mechanical Properties of Natural Fiber Reinforced Composite

Abral, Hairul and Amin, Zulkifli and Perdana, Mastariyanto and Imra, Iswandi and Syafnil, Shari and Alessandro, Fuad Reza (2009) Vacuum Effect on Improvement of Mechanical Properties of Natural Fiber Reinforced Composite. Working Paper. Fakultas Teknik. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Vacuum effect has applied to produce the natural fiber reinforced composite in this recent study. There were two kinds of fiber type used in the work as reinforcement of material, namely coir and empty fruit bunch fiber. Such fiber was manually mixed in resin at room temperature with volume fraction of fiber in resin of about 6%. The mixing were vacuumed by using vacuum apparatus by vacuum variations of -300 mmHg, -400 mmHg and -500 mmHg. As control, the composite was also made under condition of 760 mmHg (1 atm) pressure. The results show that the highest tensile strength of composite was recorded for the highest vacuum. Meanwhile the tensile strength of composite prepared on 760 mmHg was only obtained in lowest level. From the fracture surface of the composite, it was observed that many fibers of composite processed by 1 atmosphere were pull out from matrix without availability of residual resin sticky on fiber surface. On the contrary, many resins stuck strongly on fiber surface of the composite made under vacuum were found. KEYWORDS: Fracture surface; vacuum; natural fibers; composite.

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