EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON BEHAVIOR OF BAMBOO REINFORCED CONCRETE MEMBER

Arpit Sethia, Vijay Baradiya

Abstract: The use of bamboo which is fast growing and ecologically friendly material for structural applications is being considered as quite appropriate. The tensile strength of bamboo is quite high and can reach up to 125 MPa. This makes bamboo an pretty alternative to steel in tensile loading applications. The bamboo concrete composite elements can be used as alternate for concrete, steel and wood used in housing and other products required in the day to day applications. In this study it has been attempted to develop engineered bamboo structural elements for use in low cost housing. A bending test was performed on Plain, Steel & Bamboo reinforced members. For example, a total of 4beam (150x150x700mm) were casted using design mix (M25) as per IS code. These beam included 1 beam of steel reinforcement, 1beam of plain concrete, and 4beam of untreated bamboo reinforcement. The load-deformation curves displayed significant nonlinearity, representing that the bamboo has the capacity to absorb energy. Bamboo concrete composite structural members can provide tailored solutions to the eco-housing initiatives at cheaper costs. The results obtained accrue the advantage obtained by the composite members when compared to standard reinforced concrete and plain concrete.

Keywords: UTM, Composite Member, Bamboo Reinforced Concrete, Experimental Investigation, Tensile Strength.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2014.0302062