State-of-the-art review of bamboo compressive strength

• Chaaruchandra Korde

  Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (C-TARA), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400076, India

  Author

• Namrata Bhansali

  Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (C-TARA), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400076, India

  Author

• Roger West

  Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, Museum Building, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, 2, Ireland

  Author

• Sudhakar Puttagunta

  Haritha Ecological Institute, Paloncha, Khamman, Telangana, India

  Author

Bamboo has high degree of variability even for a single culm over its length which could vary from top to middle and even to bottom, and also radially across its cross-section. In order to study the variability, this paper outlines a comprehensive review of investigations on bamboo when tested for compression, in order to understand the complexity as well as challenges associated with testing bamboo. A review of different methods is undertaken to understand the various processes of testing bamboo in compression. Different key parameters are investigated that affect the compressive strength, like location along the culm, percentage bundle sheath, moisture content, nodes, slenderness ratio, treatment methods, end plate friction, and rate of loading. Further, most of the data available across the world (recorded in Appendix 1 for 109 species) is too random due to variations or a lack of a proper process of recording data of key variable parameters for testing bamboo, which makes it difficult to use it to draw comparisons. Looking at these variations, the paper proposes some suggestions in testing procedures as well as a process for deriving design compressive strength of bamboo from its characteristic compressive strength, which is a key input for undertaking structural design of bamboo construction.

• Kode et al