MORPHOLOGICAL AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MT. KELUD VOLCANIC ASH REINFORCED POLYESTER AND EPOXY COMPOSITES
Abstract: The use of suitable
waste products as raw materials has become an interesting matter in composite
industry nowadays due to the environmental issues. Volcanic ash is one of the
waste materials containing a high number of silica. The aim of this study is to
examine the morphological and mechanical properties of Mt. Kelud volcanic ash
reinforced polyester and epoxy composites. The volcano ash was dried and sieved
into 50 mesh then mixed with polyester or epoxy manually for 10 minutes. The ash
added into the matrix was varied by 0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% from matrix
volume content. For epoxy matrix, the composite with 40 vol. % particles has
the highest tensile strength. However, for the polyester/ash composites, the
tensile strength continues to decrease with the addition of particles. There is
a significant increasing of 47.04 % for polyester and 5.62 % for epoxy in
impact strength when 40 vol.% of volcanic ash added into both polymers. The
Scanning Electron Microscopy result shows that there is void and agglomeration
contained in epoxy/ash composites and crack propagation along the surface of polyester/ash
composites that could be the cause of the failure.
Penulis: Henny Pratiwi
Kode Jurnal: jptmesindd170242
