Study of the orientation of Palm Sugar E-Glass hybrid fiber - Polyester composite for Running Prostheses Application

The price of imported runner foot prosthesis made of carbon fiber is quite expensive and it is encouraging to look for alternative solutions with the use of hybrid composites reinforced with palm sugar and E Glass fibers. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the fiber orientation on the bending strength of hybrid composites reinforced with E Glass and palm sugar fibers with polyester resin. The manufacture of hybrid composites in molds is done by combining palm sugar fibers with E Glass fibers. We used the hand lay-up method with pressing process (press mold) for making the composites. To remove the fiber content of palm fiber, the heating process was dried in an oven at 60° C for 30 minutes. The independent variables in this study are the fiber orientation 0°, 30°, 45°, 60° and 90° The dependent variables in this study are the flexural strength and fracture macro photographs. While the control variables in this study are sugar palm fiber, E Glass fiber, polyester resin and the hand lay-up method. The procedure and testing process for bending test specimens refer to ASTM D 790-02 standards. The results showed that the average flexural strength for fiber orientation of 0°, 30°, 45°, 60° and 90° are 168 MPa, 261 MPa, 231 MPa, 198 MPa and 93 MPa respectively. The highest flexural strength was obtained in hybrid composites with E Glass fiber fibers with 30° fiber orientation (261 MPa), while the lowest flexural strength was obtained at 90° fiber orientation (93 MPa). The results of a macro photo of a hybrid composites reinforced by palm sugar and E Glass fibers show that most of failure caused by fiber pull out and delamination.