Pengaruh Penambahan Filler Serbuk Aluminium Oksida (al2o3) Terhadap Sifat Mekanik Komposit Polyester Berpenguat Serat Sabut Kelapa

Abstract

Currently the use of natural fibers in the biocomposite material industry is growing rapidly. The need for environmentally friendly materials is very important. Because the biggest problem in the industrial sector today is that the materials used in the industry today mostly use materials from synthetic fibers which cause environmental pollution because these materials have properties that are difficult to decompose. Therefore, alternative materials are needed, for example, composite materials from natural fibers, one of which is coconut coir. Micro-sized aluminium oxide particles in various levels of purity are widely used as fillers in composites. The method used in this research is experimental method. This alternative composite material was made by adding aluminium oxide powder (Al2O3) to the coco fiber composite. The composite manufacturing method used the hand lay-up method. The independent variabel used was the addition of aluminium oxide particles with variations (0%, 1%, 2%, and 3% by weight) to the coco fiber reinforced polyester composite. Then fabricated and tested according to ASTM D638-01 tensile test standards and ASTM D5942-96 impact tests to determine composite properties. The conclusion that can be drawn in this study is the addition of aluminium oxide powder can increase the tensile strength of coco fiber reinforced polyester composites. Of the three variations of the addition of aluminium oxide powder the highest tensile strength value was found in the 3 wt% addition variation with a tensile strength value of 22,13 MPa. The addition of aluminium oxide powder can increase the impact strength of the coco fiber reinforced polyester composite. Of the three variations of adding aluminium oxide powder, the highest impact strength value was found in the 3% weight addition variation with an impact value of 0.29 J/mm2. The morphological condition of the composite after the tensile test was carried out failed to brittle fracture and there were still fiber pull-out failures, debonding and voids.