The effect of fiber content and fiber orientation on bending strength of abaca fiber reinforce polymer composite fabricated by press method

Abstract

This study aims to determine the bending strength of abaca fiber and unsaturated polyester resin composites fabricated using press method and the effect of fiber weight and fiber orientation on the bending strength of the composite. The composite panels were fabricated with the size of 200 mm x 200 mm and 5 mm, three levels of fiber weight (20%, 30% and 40%) and three levels of fiber orientation (0°, 45° and 90°). The Design of Experiment was constructed using Full Factorial Method of Response Surface Methodology that required 9 specimens with different configuration of fiber weight and fiber orientation. The specimen for bending test was cut from the respective panels according to ASTM (American Standard Testing and Materials) D7264. The three points bending test was conducted by using Universal Testing Machines with the speed of 4-6 mm/min. The result of the experiment showed that both fiber weight and fiber orientation gave significant effect to the bending strength of the abaca composite. Increasing the fiber weight will decrease the bending strength. The change of fiber orientation from 0° to 45° decrease the bending strength, but when the fiber orientation change from 45° to 90° the bending strength increase. The maximum bending strength was 89.97 MPa, produced by the abaca composite with 20% fiber weight and 0° fiber orientation. The minimum bending strength was 20,22 MPa, produced by the abaca composite with 40% fiber weight and 90° fiber orientation.