Thermal Properties of Sago Pith Waste Reinforced Polyester Composites

Abstract:

Natural fiber has been used as a heat-insulating material for ages in Indonesia. On the other hand, there is plenty of sago pith waste (SPW) available since the nation is the world's top producer of sago starch. In this study, SPW was utilized in manufacturing composite materials, and their thermal properties were investigated. The unsaturated polyester resin was used as the matrix, and the composites were manufactured in three different SPW volume fractions: 20%, 30%, and 40%. The thermal properties were measured using a test setup box equipped with a 100 W lamp as a heat source. The thermocouple sensor DS18B20 was utilized to measure the necessary temperatures to determine the thermal conductivity of the composites. An Arduino microcontroller system connected to a computer was applied to manage the reading from the temperature sensors. The thermal conductivity was measured according to the temperature of the heat source. It was discovered that as the SPW volume fraction in the composites increases, thermal conductivity does as well at any lamp temperature. The measured thermal conductivity varied considerably; thus, taking the average may not be reliable as the error bars were larger than the average values. Further analysis of the measured temperature development revealed that the accurate thermal conductivity values lie within a very narrow range of lamp temperature, 50 °C < T_lamp <60 °C.

• Periodical: Materials Science Forum (Volume 1149)
• Pages: 31-38
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/p-UuXAN9
• Online since: May 2025
• Authors: Luthfi Luthfi*
• Keywords: Arduino, DS18B20 Sensor, Sago Pith Waste, Thermal Conductivity, Unsaturated Polyester Resin

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