The Effect of Reinforce Powder Size on The Properties of Pineapple Leaf Fiber – Bagasse Sandwich Composites

Abstract

The growth of ship production in Indonesia encourages the shipping industry to utilize the composite material in order to be more efficient. Natural fibre-reinforced composite (NFRC) is one option that should be considered for use safer than fiberglass. The usage of fiberglass could trigger several health problems. Sugarcane and pineapples are one of the most common agricultural commodities, yet their waste has not been treated optimally. This research is going to analyse the effect of reinforcement powder size on its bending strength in pineapple leaf fibre – bagasse reinforced sandwich composites. Pineapple leaf fibre use as skin reinforcement whereas bagasse use as core reinforcement. Sandwich composites were reviewed for their bending strength on specimens on reinforcement powder size 40, 60, and 100 mesh. The composite was made using the hand lay-up method with skin composition is 20:80% and core composition is 25:75%, each layer of skin and core have 2 mm thickness. The highest bending strength for sandwich composite is 52,72±0,85 MPa as a result of the experiment using 100 mesh of reinforcement powder. The bending strength of sandwich composite increase as finer particle powder use for the reinforcement. The highest bending strength in this study can be used as bulkhead material for the interior of the ship’s accommodation space based on SNI 01-4449-2006.