Experimental Strength Evaluation of Bamboo Reinforced Concrete Beams

This paper presents the outcome of an experimental investigation of the behavior and strength of reinforced concrete beams with bamboo reinforcement. A total of five beam specimens were tested in flexural under four point (pure bending) loading. A plain concrete beam (B1) served as a control beam. Two specimens (B2 and B3) were longitudinally reinforced with four bamboo culms and steel stirrups. The last two specimens (B4 and B5) had similar longitudinal reinforcement but bamboo pieces were used as shear stirrups. The bamboo culms used in two specimens (B2 & B4) were treated with bitumen along with sprinkling of fine particles of sand to achieve rough surface for better bonding with concrete. The introduction of bamboo reinforcement increased the stiffness, strength, and ductility of beams significantly as compared to the plain concrete beam. The ultimate load carrying capacity of bamboo reinforced concrete beams was found to be 2.49 to 3.29 times that of control beam. The observed ultimate load was 25% and 13% more for specimens with coated reinforcement in case of steel stirrups and bamboo stirrups respectively. The specimen with coated bamboo reinforcementand steel stirrups achieved the highest ultimate load among all specimens.

Flexural Behavior of Bamboo Reinforced Concrete Beam with Steel Stirrups

The flexural behavior of concrete beams reinforced with bamboo was studied experimentally. Bamboo was used as the main reinforcement with different bonding materials in place of steel. A nominal mix of M20 grade concrete was adopted for the beam design. The Bamboo surface was treated with common binding materials like Araldite and Bitumen. Araldite and Bitumen are good binding materials used to connect materials like steel, carbon and many different materials. Two specimens were casted with bitumen coating, two specimens were coated with araldite, two specimens were casted without any binder coating and a specimen was casted using normal steel reinforcement. Beams were casted with bamboo reinforcement and cured for 28 days. Deflection and flexural behavior of the beams were monitored. The test results imply that araldite coating in concrete beams with bamboo reinforcement increased the flexural strength to that of bamboo reinforced concrete using bitumen which is lesser strength to that of steel reinforced concrete beam.

Bamboo Concrete Bond Strength

Bamboo reinforced concrete is expected to be an alternative to steel reinforced concrete as a building material. Steel, when used for construction activities, is energy intensive and causes pollution. In this context, the use of bamboo, which is a fast growing, affordable and ecologically friendly solution; especially in a tropical country like India, is being considered as a suitable material for structural applications. It is potentially superior to steel in terms of its weight to strength ratio. However, the bond strength is a major concern for the bamboo to be a reinforcement in structural composites. The goal of this paper is to investigate the bonding properties of a newly developed bamboo-reinforcement composite in concrete, through pull-out tests. Various coatings are applied to the bamboo to determine the different bonding behaviours between the concrete and newly developed BRC. To improve the bonding at interfacial of bamboo concrete composite; easily applicable, adoptable and economical technology have been developed. The results of this study demonstrate that the bamboo-reinforcement composite develops adequate bonding with the concrete matrix with the hope that the newly developed material could contribute, on a large scale, to sustainable development.

USAGE OF BAMBOO POWDER AS AN ADDITIVE IN ADOBE BRICKS AND BAMBOO CANES FRAME FOR THE REINFORCEMENT OF ADOBE STRUCTURE

The research shows the possibility to improve the resistance of adobe constructions using as a product, the processing waste, the bamboo powder. It can be used as additive in the mixture of the adobe bricks, increasing substantially their resistance. Those new bricks could be combined with an external reinforcement made by bamboo canes. Under normal operating conditions, the bamboo reinforcement does not collaborate with the adobe structure, but in case of strong exceptional events it is able to avoid the collapse of adobe walls. The tested solutions suit to solve many problems in crucial contexts in Latin America. In fact, this system can be built as self-construction, in environmental extremely precarious conditions, and it is also part of the traditional building knowledge of the populations to which it is addressed.