MUHAMMAD HAKIM BIN AHMAD NADZRI

Palm Fibre is produced from oil palm's

vascular bundles in the Empty Fruit
Bunch (EFB).
Palm fiber itself is 100% natural, nonhazardous, biodegradable and
environmentally friendly.
Nowadays, natural fibres from
agriculture are rapidly investigated
for multiple usages in many
structural and non-structural
applications.
Examples are as lining for
automotive components and
wood-based materials for acoustic
absorption.

Advantages of coir fibres

-

Lightweight
Strong
High Durability

1 . Existing composites such as carbon fibre

and fiberglass
have problems
- Expensive
- Health and safety issue. E.g. Fiberglass effect towards
eye and lung.
2 . Oil palm has produce huge amount of wastage in the form
of natural fibre every year and has low rate of decomposition.

3 . Nowadays natural fibre have less in strength compare to

synthetic fibre . Oil palm fibre are well known in fabrication
due to high tensile strength. So we need to test on their
strength in the form of composite.

To produce the sample of oil palm fibre

composite for three point bending test.
Preparing the specimen according to the
ASTM E8
To mix the oil palm fibre and polyester resin
with correct amount of percentages.
Test the specimen with different amount of
polyester resin and oil palm fibre.
To collect the data based on the three
point bending

Oil Plam Fibre

1. It take from retting process of
empty fruit bunch (EFB)
2. Brown in colour.
3. High tesile strength ang
elongation.
4. Slow rate of decomposition.

Polyester resin.

Cheaper

Long lasting

Durable

Unidirectional

A single layer reinforcement

with all of the fibre oriented in
either the longitudinal or
transverse direction.

BIAXIAL

The two layer reinforcement

which two possible
configurations. The most
common is to have one layer in
0 degree direction and the
other layer in 90 degree
direction.

DOUBLE BIAS

A biaxial reinforcement where

the layer are in the + 45 degree
and 45 degree direction.

TRIAXIAL

A three layer reinforcement that

can be either Longitudinal or
Transverse.

QUADRAXIAL

A four layer stiched fabric with one layer in each of the four primary
directions : 0 / +45 / 90 / -45 degree.

Material :

1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Clean the mould using rag.

Apply mold release (wax) three times and wait 5 minutes for
every interval.
Weight the oil palm fibre at 15 gram using electronic weighing
scale and put it on the mould with randomly orientation
uniformly thickness..
Combine the epoxy resin and hardener with ratio .
Then pour the resin into the mould and mix it with the oil palm
fibre.
Then put the mould container at room temperature with good
air ventilation .
Wait at least 8 hour before removing the composite from the
mould.
Remove the composite and detect any defect.
Apply resin on the defect with ratio 2:1 to hardener until the
surface is parallel with others.
Repeat step 1 until step 9 for 25 gram and 40 gram of coir fibres.

Prepare 5 specimens for each 15 gram, 25 gram and 40 gram

volume of oil palm fibre composite according to the ASTM
D790.
Make a dimension 5 inch length and 0.5 inch width.
10% of each specimen length is marked at both ends of the
specimen and middle of the specimen also being marked.
5 inch

0.5
inch

The main idea of this project is to

generate alternative composite material
from the natural fibre to reduce the
problem arise from the previous material
at the same time able to gain the same
strength. Also we want to find the
suitable ratio between fibre and resin
that can obtain the maximum strength.

[1] M. Jawaid H. P. S. Abdul Khalil P. Noorunnisa Khanam A.

Abu Bakar 19 May 2010 _ Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
2010
[2] By Arne Hessenbruch updated on 19 October 2002 and
edited.[origin of composite]
[3] Written by Stphen at ADMET NPE 2015 March 17, 2015
[4] Author: Dr. Donald Adams Posted on: 11/1/2005 HighPerformance Composites
[5] From book of advance composite and fabrication repair
written by Louis C.Drowth,Ginger L.Gardiner,Greg M.Mellema.
Published 2009 by Aviation Supplies &academics,Inc. (page 192)
[6] From book of advance composite and fabrication repair
written by Louis C.Drowth,Ginger L.Gardiner,Greg M.Mellema.
Published 2009 by Aviation Supplies &academics,Inc. (page 256)
[7] American Society for Testing and Materials (1979). Definition
of terms relating to methods of mechanical testing. ASTM D103711 of standard E6 - 76, part 10,
Philadelphia PA.
[8] Robert G. Drysdale, Ahmad A. Hamid and Lawie R. Baker
(1994) Masonry Structure : Behavior and Design. Englewood
Cliffs, N. J. : Prentice-Hall Inc.