Mechanical behavior of laminated bamboo lumber for structural application: an experimental investigation

Moso bamboo is one of the fast-growing renewable materials and comparable in strength to other commonly used construction materials. The main impediment to a widespread use of bamboo in structural applications is the inherent variability in its geometric and mechanical properties. Despite the interest in the use of laminated bamboo lumber (LBL) in engineered construction is growing, very little previous work has addressed the performance of LBL. The mechanical properties and failure modes of LBL were investigated by comparison with other structural composite materials. The experimental results indicated that the LBL have properties that are comparable to or surpass those of wood-based products and achieve the same good performance as other engineered bamboo products. The stress–strain curves reflecting the full process failure of LBL were also discussed. A linear elastic model was proposed for LBL in tension, and two simplified models for LBL in compression were suggested. It was found that the theoretical models describing the stress–strain relationship of LBL were in good agreement with experiment data. The results provided useful information for modeling various structures containing LBL.