Effect of NaOH Treatment Duration on the Tensile Strength of Ripoxy Resin Textile Composites Reinforced with Agel-Cotton Ropes.

Abstract

The development of composite materials has been a major focus of research in recent decades, especially textile fiber composites that offer a unique combination of mechanical and material properties of textile fibers and polymer matrices. Textile composites can be produced by utilizing synthetic and natural fibers. The natural fiber used is agel rope. Agel ropes woven with cotton threads can be used as reinforcement on resin composites. In this study, the effect of immersion time on tensile strength in Ripoxy resin textile composites reinforced with agel and cotton ropes was studied. This test was carried out by soaking woven agel and cotton rope in a 5% NaOH solution. The soaking time variations are 1 hour, 2 hours and 3 hours NaOH soaking time. Then a tensile test was carried out with ASTM D3039 standard and a microstructure test. This test is carried out in the direction of agel and cotton pieces. Based on the data obtained, the largest tensile stress value is at the variation of 2 hours of soaking time, at the agel one-way cut of 21.94 MPa and the cotton cut direction of 19.69 MPa. The lowest value was obtained in the 3-hour variation, in the direction of the agel of 11.17 MPa and in the direction of the cotton cut of 10.27 MPa. In the 3-hour immersion variation, the voltage begins to decrease because the longer the NaOH immersion time is carried out, it can result in brittleness in the fibers or experience degradation related to the decreasing tensile stress along with the increase in the length of immersion time.