Water Content and Nail Head Pulled-through Strength of Epoxy/Sumberejo Kenaf Fiber Composites with Different Fiber Orientations Ilva Zahrotin (a*), Ariadne L. Juwono (a), Seto Roseno (b)
a) Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424, Indonesia
b) Center of Technology for Materials - Agency for the Assesment and Application of Technology (BPPT), Building No.224 Kawasan Puspiptek, South Tangerang 15314, Banten, Indonesia
*Email: ilva.zahrotin[at]ui.ac.id
Abstract
Environmentally friendly materials have become an exciting topic of research in preventing environmental pollution in Indonesia. Natural fiber-reinforced composite is one of the ecologically friendly bio-composites. The purpose of this study was to analyse the water content, the thickness swelling, and the nail head-pulled-through strength of Sumberejo kenaf fiber reinforced epoxy (KF/EP) composites according to SNI 01-4449-2006 standard. The kenaf fiber was treated by NaOH solution before used as reinforcement. The KF/EP composite laminas were fabricated by Vacuum Assisted Resin Infusion (VARI) method with a stack of (0°/0°/0°/0°) and (0°/90°/0°/90°). These laminas were compared to pristine epoxy samples. These composites were categorized as high-density fiberboards (HDF). The highest value of nail head pull-through strength and minimum value of water content and thickness swelling were found in the KF/EP (0°/90°/0°/90°) with the value of (104,22 ± 1,50) kgf, (4,66 ± 0,38) %, and (6,19 ± 1,63) % respectively. These composites complied with SNI 01-4449-2006 standard.
Keywords: Kenaf fiber- Epoxy- Water content- Thickness swelling- Nail head pulled-through strength
