The document summarizes a study on the mechanical properties of bamboo and its use as a structural member. It discusses the methodology used, which included material testing to determine bamboo's specific gravity, moisture content, compressive strength, flexural strength, elastic modulus, and tearing strength. It also describes modeling a bamboo truss in Staad Pro software and analyzing it under different loads. Various connection methods for the bamboo truss are presented, including bolted, bamcrete, and rubber tire joints. The fabrication and testing of the bamboo truss is outlined.

1. STUDY OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF
BAMBOO AND ITS USE AS STRUCTURAL
MEMBER
Submitted by:
Aarzoo 00115603415
Deepak vashisht 02415603415
Kishan 03615603415
Nitish Bhardwaj 04715603415
Ranjan kumar Lal 05615603415
Submitted to:
Mr Ashish Malik
Ms. Shikha Sachan

2. Table of Contents
•Introduction
•Literature review
•Methodology
•Progress
•References

3. Introduction
•Why bamboo for construction?
•Why bamboo truss is better than other structures?
•Connections
•Methodology

4. Why bamboo for construction?
Bamboo is an extraordinary plant in many ways.
Bamboo is inexpensive compared with other building materials, and is environmentally
friendly.
Due to its hollow shape, it is more efficient than solid cylinder.
Strength to weight ratio of bamboo is greater than steel.
Culms avoid buckling.
It is a carbon intaker not an emitter.

5. Carbon emission
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
Steel bamboo Bamboo ( storing carbon)
Carbon
Series 1 Column1 Column2
Source:David Trujillo , TEDx
Coventry University

6. Why bamboo trusses are better than
other structures
•Loads applied on truss are transferred among elements through axial loads only, and bamboo
being strong in tension parallel to grain and sufficiently strong in compression makes enough
utilisation of all its strength.
•Other than truss members may need to bear transverse loadings, bending moments, torsion etc
which limits the use of full strength of bamboo thus Truss can be considered among one of the
best choice for structures made of bamboo.

7. Literature Review
•S.gupta, P.Sudhakaran, C.Korde, A.Aggarwal studied that bamboo of dendrocalamus strictus has
a good compressive strength. The bambcrete column provides a simple solution for rural
housing.
• ( 2010)Yan xiao, MASCE; Quan Zhau; Based on the test results and analysis, a 10-m long single
lane roadway bridge was designed and constructed, which was the first of its kind in the world.
The field tests were carried out using an over loaded two-axel truck with a total weight of 8.6 t
which exceeded the given design truckload of 8.0 t.
• (2015)Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay and Sekhar Chandra Dutta The paper reports lesser
strength of split bamboo specimens than round ones, which contradicts the provisions of some
codes. The paper also observes that compressive strength of bamboo generally increases along
its culm length, gradually from bottom to top.

8. •(2018) Lokendra Kaushal, Mr. Madan Chandra Maurya from the test results it was proved and
finds that bamboo has high ultimate tensile strength and can be used as an alternative for
replacing material for steel reinforcement because of its low cost. Bamboo reinforced concrete
can be used in manufacturing of table, benches and stools in public places such as hotels,
schools, parks, railway stations etc to make the environment eco-friendly and for low cost
construction. Constructions made with bamboo can be very durable and strong if it is well
immunized and well selected methods are trying to have the best quality of the material
• (2008)Suresh Bhalla*, Supratic Gupta1, Puttagunta Sudhakar2 and Rupali Suresh. This paper has
covered the analysis and the conceptual design of a typical bamboo based shed structure under
various loads and their combinations. Wind loads have been considered as per IS 875 part 37
and thestructure analyzed in a simple fashion, by considering the behaviour of a typical framein
the transverse direction.
•(2018) Qiang Chen, Jianke Lang and Jiejun Wang, To solve the poor bearing capacity of
traditional timber structures and increase utilization of bamboo materials and timber materials,
a new bamboo-log composite beam was designed.

9. Methodology
Design philosophy
Material Testing
Software Analysis
Connections
Fabrication

10. Design philosophy
The primary principle of truss as a load bearing structure is that arranging elements into
triangular configuration results into stable shape.
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS IN TRUSS ANALYSIS
•As per derived result from calculations it was concluded that depth to span ratio of truss should
lie between 1/3rd to 1/10th depending on many other factors, major is economy.
•Inclination of members should vary between 30degree to 60degree, best result is for 45degrees.
•Zero force members are employed to provide Stability, restraint against wind loads and safety in
case of failure of any individual member. For moving loads zero member forces may transfer
forces.

11. Force analysis
B
A B
C
D
E
F
Truss
Member Force(kN)
AD 0
DF 0
FC 0
CB 0
FB 10.5
AF 10.5
EB -7.5
FE 5

12. Material Testing
Test-01 To determine Specific Gravity of bamboo sample
Test-02 To determine Moisture content present in bamboo sample
Test-03 To determine Compressive strength of bamboo sample
Test-04 To determine Flexure strength of bamboo sample
Test-05 To determine Elastic Modulus of bamboo sample
Test-06 To determine Tearing strength of bamboo sample

13. Determination of Specific Gravity
The test specimens for determining basic mass per volume shall be taken from freshly felled
culms at different positions of the culm (base, middle and top). It shall be about 25 mm in length
and 25 mm in width with full wall thickness. This test will also enable determination of the
moisture content of the green specimen. As per IS 6784-2008 Specific gravity

14. Determination of Moisture content
The specimens for determining moisture content shall be taken at least 150 mm away from the
nearest edge of the culm.
The test specimens shall immediately be put in a polythene bag in order to ensure no loss of
moisture. The test specimens shall be weighed to an accuracy of 0.01 g and then dried in a hot-
air oven at a temperature of 103 k 2°C for 24 h. The test specimen shall then be weighed and
drying continued thereafter. The final mass shall be considered as the oven dry mass.

15. Determination of Compressive strength
As per IS 6874-2008,
Specimen for compressive strength was taken from undamaged ends of specimen
used in static bending test. The maximum load at which the specimen failed was
recorded. Compressive strength calculated as:

16. Determination of Flexure Strength
The test specimens, free from defects like cracks and crookedness, shall be taken from the air-
dried and conditioned culms. The test specimens shall be free from wide varying taper.
Load at which bamboo specimen fails is 4.0kN

17. Determination of Elastic Modulus
Elastic modulus of bamboo was determined as per IS 6874-2008 as,
Static Bending test was performed to determine elastic modulus. For this the test specimens,
free from defects like cracks and crookedness, shall be taken from the air-dried and conditioned
culms. The test specimens shall be free from wide varying taper. The length of the specimens
shall be at least 30 times diameter at the middle point plus 1 m.
Elastic modulus was calculated as

18. Determination of tearing Strength
Specimens for tensile strength test shall be taken from
the undamaged ends of specimens used in static
bending tests. The test specimens shall be with one
node in the centre.
The general direction of the fibres shall be parallel to
the longitudinal axis of the test specimen.

19. Material Properties
Specific Gravity of bamboo sample : 10.75
Moisture content present in bamboo sample:6.67%
Compressive strength of bamboo sample : 65 N/mm²
Flexure strength of bamboo sample: 10.13 N/mm²
Elastic Modulus of bamboo sample: 437000 KN/m²
Tearing strength of bamboo sample: 16455.7 KN/m³

20. Software Analysis
To effectively study the structural behaviour of bamboo as structural member, it is crucial to
study how a bamboo responds to various loading conditions. To achieve this a plan of Truss using
Staad Pro was used.
Key points of analysis:
•Modelling and loads
•Material properties
•Deflections

21. Modelling and loads
Truss model made was of 4m
span and 1m rise and Width
of carriageway is 1m.
Diagonal members are of
2.8m length.

23. Material Properties
Material properties used for
analysis was derived from
experiments performed and
some values were derived
from other research papers
mentioned.

24. Deflections
Maximum deflection observed
was around 13mm which is
under permissible limits. Also
further deflection can be
controlled by using composite
sections of bamboo.

25. Connections
Out of many conventional and modern joining techniques following two types of joints were
used:
1. Bolted Joints
2. Bamcrete Joints
3. Rubber tyre joints

26. Bolted Connections
Bolted connection were designed for minimum of the Tearing strength of bamboo, Yield stress
of steel and Bearing strength of bolt.
Considering the outer diameter of bamboo lying between 2.5cm to 3.5cm and its circular cross
section diameter of bolt used were 4mm and 6mm.

27. Bamcrete joints
In the making of Bamcrete joints, two materials mainly used are bamboo and concrete. The
average compressive strength of bamboo from the top, middle and bottom region with and
without nodes when test, is 35 MPa. The concrete is used in the band region to develop a rigid
joint between two bamboo culms. The steel stirrup used in the form of ‘U-stirrup’ is of mild steel
rod of 6 mm diameter.
For estimating strength of joint, Development length leading to bond between concrete and
bamboo was calculated. Since it is difficult to perform pull-out test on this joint, average value of
bond stress was taken from other sources.

28. Rubber tyre joint
•A rubber tyre joint is a joint prepared by inserting
the rubber tyre around the Bamboo inserted in
another bamboo
•The main problem with this kind of joint is the
skilled supervision needed and not sufficient
strength evaluation.

29. Fabrication
•Cutting of bamboo and drilling of bamboo: Preparation of structural drawings, hands on training
of cutting and drilling of bamboo using saw and drilling machine respectively. Care to be taken
while working with machines, and avoiding damage to bamboo specimens, fabrication of trusses
for the bridge was a valuable experience for us.
•Tightening of nut bolts with bamboo and maintaining alignment of specimen members to get
required configuration was the most important part of learning .
•In conventional steel structures, gusset plate 5 mm thick in the form of solid steel plate
configured as per joint length or as per architectural requirement is provided.

30. Cutting operation Drilling operation Power drilling operation Assembling of members
Fabricated Structure

31. Result
Load applied at
mid
Deflection observed
at mid
64 kg 2.5mm
79kg 2.8mm
87kg 3.25mm
143kg 4.1mm
Dial gauge
measuring deflection
Load applied

32. Discussion
•Testing of bamboo have been a challenging task. From experiments we have conducted till now,
bamboo have performed fine.
•Fabrication of truss brought itself many unaccounted challenges. This backbreaking task require
skilled workmanship and proper planning of resources to maximize utilization.

33. References
•(2008) Experimental verification of bamboo-concrete composite column with ferro-cement band
S. GUPTA1; P. SUDHAKAR2; C. KORDE3; A. AGRAWAL4
⦁ Design and Construction of Modern Bamboo Bridges Yan Xiao, M.ASCE1; Quan Zhou2; and Bo
Shan3
⦁ Investigating Compressive and Cleavage Strengths of an Indian Bamboo SpeciesParthasarathi
Mukhopadhyay1 and Sekhar Chandra Dutta2
⦁ Flexural Properties of Bamboo-Log Composite Beam Qiang Chen1,2, Jianke Lang1 and Jiejun
Wang1,*
⦁ Performance of Bamboo Reinforced Concrete Beam a Review Lokendra Kaushal1, Mr. Madan
Chandra Maurya2

34. ⦁ Bamboo as green alternative to concrete and steel for modern structures Suresh Bhalla*,
Supratic Gupta1, Puttagunta Sudhakar2 and Rupali Suresh3
⦁ Bamboo Sticks as a Substitute of Steel Reinforcement in Slab I.K. Khan Department of Civil
Engineering, Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh,U.P.