Structural analysis of a Guadua bamboo bridge in Colombia

Abstract

In recent years, scientists have focused their attention in developing sustainable materials that can boost the construction industry without causing damage to the environment. In South and Central American forests grows a tropical species of bamboo known as Guadua angustifolia Kunth, which has been widely used for construction purposes since ancient times. Offering advantages such as: environmental friendliness, fast-growing and high strength-to-weight ratio. This paper analyzes the structural behavior of an existing multi-culm Guadua bamboo truss type footbridge located in Colombia, according to national regulations NSR-10. A model of the structure is implemented using a commercial finite element software, details for an accurate description of the structure’s behavior through the proposed model are offered. Furthermore, an exhaustive description of the structure’s load transfer and its materials mechanical properties is performed, as well as a review on connections and immunization process. Finally, improvement opportunities for the building codes used for the analysis and investigation opportunities are identified. The purpose of this paper is stepping into the right direction thus, one day Guadua angustifolia Kunth and bamboo in general can be fully exploited in the construction industry.

A Review on Flexural Properties of Wood-Plastic Composites

“…Different types of WPCs made from wood fibers have different bending strengths. In recent years, researchers developed innovative sustainable materials that can boost the construction industry without causing damage to the environment [ 32 ]. Mu et al [ 33 ] studied the preparation of HDPE matrix composites by using four biomass particles, namely poplar, pine, wheat straw, and bamboo as reinforcement fillers.…”

Research Progress of Bio‐Based Polybenzoxazine Materials

“…The reason may be related to the cross-linking density of the BOZ resin. Therefore, through the innovative combination of bamboo and BOZ, these three bio-based PBz based on dehydroabietylamine have potential applications in the fields of high-performance anticorrosion and antibacterial materials, [99] and open up a new path for the modification of bamboo structure [100] and even wood structure. [101] Liu et al [25] synthesized two bio-based BOZ monomers, DG (Guaiacol as phenol source) and DM (4-methylumbelliferone as phenol source), using modified rosin amine (dehydroabietylamine), guaiacol and 4-methylumbelliferone, respectively.…”

“…The reason may be related to the cross‐linking density of the BOZ resin. Therefore, through the innovative combination of bamboo and BOZ, these three bio‐based PBz based on dehydroabietylamine have potential applications in the fields of high‐performance anti‐corrosion and antibacterial materials, [ 99 ] and open up a new path for the modification of bamboo structure [ 100 ] and even wood structure. [ 101 ]…”

A review on mechanical behavior of laminated bamboo lumber connections

“…An appropriate design of structures is a requirement of great importance, which ensures the safety of structures and the optimization of material resource consumption. According to previous studies, failure of connections is responsible for 25% of recent collapses of timber structures [68][69][70][71]. The reliability of connections is a key to stable structures, and a better understanding of the performance of the LBL connections is inevitable.…”