MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF POLYETHYLENE MATRIX COMPOSITES WITH ARECA FRUIT PEEL POWDER FILLER (Areca catechu) AND SUGAR CANE FIBER (Saccharum officinarum L)

Utilization of betel nut peel waste and sugarcane fiber has not been maximized so that the purpose of this study was to determine the characteristics of the mechanical properties, tensile strength and bending strength of the polyethylene matrix composite with betel nut peel powder and sugarcane fiber filler. In this study, the variation of the ratio of the volume of fiber used is: (0%: 10%), (10%: 0%), (5%: 5%). The fibers used previously were modified with 2% NaOH treatment for each fiber. The results for the tensile test were the variation of 10% sugarcane fiber was 34.876 MPa, 10% variation of areca nut husk powder was 28.109 MPa, 5% variation of areca nut peel powder and 5% sugarcane fiber was 12.104 MPa.