Monotonic Testing of RC Beams with Plain, Sand-Blasted, and Rope-Wrapped Bamboo Reinforcement

Sustainable construction techniques have been sought and developed for many years. Bamboo reinforced concrete (RC) beams have been proposed as an alternative solution to conventional steel RC beams. Performance of physllostachys bambusoides holocchrysa bamboo species as reinforcement is experimentally investigated in this work. A total of 5 beams with a span of L = 150 cm and cross-section sizes of 20 cm/30 cm (3 bamboo reinforced (BRC), 1 steel reinforced (SRC), and 1 plain/unreinforced (PCC) concrete beam) were constructed and monotonically tested to failure. A C30-grade concrete was used. Experimental load-midspan deflection and bending moment-curvature curves are given. Three types of bamboo reinforcements with different surface treatments (plain (P-BRC-SS), sand-blasted (S-BRC-SS), and, rope-wrapped (R-BRC-SS)) were used to investigate the impact of bond on the overall behavior. Bamboo reinforcement has increased the load-bearing capacity of the unreinforced concrete beam by 310%. All reinforced beams posed flexural failure from rupture of the bottom longitudinal rebars. The behavior of the sand-blasted bamboo reinforced beam (S-BRC-SS) was more ductile than the plain (P-BRC-SS) and rope-wrapped (R-BRC-SS) beams. Lower displacement ductilities (min 1.55, max 2.02) were obtained for BRC beams when compared with SRC beam (7.84). It is concluded that bamboo rebars with proper treatment can be used as reinforcement in which limited ductility is acceptable (e.g. non-seismic or low-seismic applications in low-rise residential housing).