research

structural bamboo

Bamboo is seen as an aesthetically pleasing material and is therefore often applied in a decorative fashion. However, as a structural material, bamboo is often not considered. This is partly due to the fact that there is not much known about the structural behavior of bamboo. For this research project, the compressive strength parallel to the grain of laminated bamboo beams are tested. The test results are applied to existing codes for timber to see if these codes are also applicable to bamboo. It turns out that with a slight modification, the timber codes are usable.