Characterization of Hybrid Composite Polyester with Recycled HDPE Core by Hand Lay-Up Method

High-density polyethylene (HDPE) waste is used in composite materials due to the increasing abundance of domestic polymer waste worldwide. Mostly pure HDPE has been used as a structural material; meanwhile, recycled HDPE (r-HDPE) is commonly transformed into particulate and used as a modified matrix in composite material. The use of r-HDPE was rarely converted into a panel and used as a core in the application of structural composites. Therefore, this research focused on converting the r-HDPE into a panel using a simple resizing and hot press method. The panel was used as core material and combined with fiberglass to fabricate a structural composite. The r-HDPE shows improved mechanical properties and fire performance with the combination of fiberglass layer. The new r-HDPE structural composite was shown to have good tensile, flexural, and water absorption properties. The fire performance also shows improvement with no dripping occurred after combination with fiberglass layers.