Engineered bamboo: state of the art

Abstract

Bamboo is a rapidly renewable material that is available globally and comparable in strength to modern structural materials. The widespread use of bamboo in construction is limited by the inherent variability in its geometric and mechanical properties, and the lack of standardisation. Engineered bamboo aims to reduce the variability of the natural material and is processed and manufactured into laminated composites. Although the composites have mechanical properties similar to other structural materials, the products are currently limited to architectural applications. A field of research on engineering bamboo is emerging with the aim to demonstrate and expand its use to structural applications. To summarise the state of the art, a review of published research is presented with the focus on two types of engineered bamboo: bamboo scrimber and laminated bamboo. The materials are compared with structural timber and laminated veneer lumber to demonstrate the potential applications and practical use.

Thermal conductivity of engineered bamboo composites

“…As bamboo is often considered as an alternative to wood, and indeed analogous to wood with respect to materials development, testing standards, and end-use (but importantly not in microstructure and mechanical behaviour) [1,2,7], a comparison of the thermal properties of engineered bamboo composites with engineered wood composites is useful.…”

“…Bamboo is a rapidly growing and renewable material with increasing interest for its use as a structural building material [1][2][3][4][5]. As a natural, cellulosic material, bamboo is comparable to timber; however, bamboo species belong to the family of grasses and differ from timber in both gross morphology and cellular structure: a comparison is given in Fig.…”

“…1. Due to the highly axially oriented cellulose microfibrils within bamboo cells, and cells that form longitudinal vascular bundles within ground tissue (parenchyma), bamboo is stronger in axial tension and axial compression than timber [1]. To take advantage of this, various advancements have been made over the past decade in the development of engineered bamboo products, such as laminated bamboo, bamboo scrimber, and bamboo-oriented strand board [6], in some ways mimicking the fundamental concepts behind engineered wood products [7], for the rapid construction of low-embodied energy buildings.…”

Mechanical properties of different bamboo species

“…All bamboo species has a similar anatomy, which consists of nodes, internodes, and diaphragm as shown in Figure 1. Each species can be identified according to their root system, in which there are three known root systems including, sympodial, monopodial, and amphodial [4]. The thickness of a bamboo decreases along the height of the culm, while the fibres density increases from the bamboo culm's inner wall to outer wall.…”

BIM Bamboo: a digital design framework for bamboo culms

“…In line with the design philosophy for industrialised structural components developed in the last century, recent technological and scientific developments are increasingly focused on energy-intensive processes to transform bamboo culms into standardised beams and panels (Aschheim et al, 2010;Sharma et al, 2014;Xiao et al, 2008) in order to overcome the challenges posed by a natural structural element. Limited lifecycle and carbon dioxide footprint analyses of these products have been carried out (van der Lugt and Vogtlander, 2015) but a wider range of independent research is required to reach a conclusion on the environmental impact of these products.…”