The Effect of Orientation Fibres on Flexural and Tensile Properties of Arenga Pinnata Fibres Reinforced Polyester Composites

This paper presents flexural and tensile properties of sugar palm (Arenga pinnata) fibres-reinforced polyester composites study. The fibres were treated by alkaline solution with 5% NaOH solution for 2 hours of soaking time. The composites were prepared with different orientations of fibres (i.e. 0° + 45°, 0° + 90°, 45° + 90°, and 45° + (-45°)), while the ratio between Arenga pinnata fibres and polyester is 30 percent volume. Hand lay-up method was employed to produce the specimens. ASTM D-790 03 and ASTM D-3039 standard were employed to characterize the specimens in good sequent. As the result, the specimen with 45°+90° orientation generated maximum important values both in flexural strength (24.03 MPa) and modulus (4.01 GPa), tensile strength (23.84 MPa) and modulus elasticity (0.97 GPa). This is due to palm fibres as reinforcement that forms an angle of 90 ° or increasingly upright to the load crossing field (load of bending) and tensile load giving the effect of maximum reinforcement compared to other fibres orientations.