ANALISIS KEKUATAN MATERIAL KOMPOSIT PERPADUAN SERAT RAMI DAN SERAT TAPIS SEBAGAI ALTERNATIF FIBERGLASS

Abstract

In the shipbuilding industry, composites are widely used in the construction of ship hulls due to their unique advantages, such as customizable strength, good fatigue resistance, higher specific strength, and corrosion resistance. Composite materials made from natural fibers, such as ramie fiber, have great potential in engineering applications, especially as reinforcement in new composite materials. Additionally, agricultural waste such as coconut frond, which is a type of solid waste resulting from coconut plantations and a by-product of the fresh fruit bunch harvesting process, also holds significant potential. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the tensile strength of natural fiber woven ramie and coconut frond (tapis), as well as the flexural strength of these materials as composites for ship hull construction, using the hand lay-up method in the composite manufacturing process. The research involved testing specimens with variations of woven ramie, coconut frond, and a combination of both. The results showed average tensile and flexural strength values for each variation, with the highest values obtained from the coconut frond (tapis) variation, which exhibited a tensile strength of 79.859 MPa and a flexural strength of 119.808 MPa.