Inelastic Bending Performances of Laminated Bamboo Beams: Experimental Investigation and Analytical Study

Laminated bamboo (LB) is a processed bamboo-based composite fabricated by gluing bamboo strips under controlled temperature and pressure. It has many superior mechanical properties compared to commonly used wood products and is well suited for use as a construction material. The present work consisted of two parts. The first part aimed at studying the bending performances of LB beams. The stress-strain relationship of the LB composite had approximately perfect elasticity under tension, yet exhibited more complicated behavior under compression (i.e., linearity in the prior-proportional limit and nonlinearity in the post-proportional limit). The strength in tension was significantly higher than that during compression. Damage of LB beam began with the fiber yielding in the compressive zone until failure occurred when the fibers at the outermost part of the tensile zone broke. Hence, LB beams always underwent a long nonlinear process before failure. An empirical stress-strain relationship was proposed on the basis of a bilinear model. In the second part of the study, an analytical model for calculating the load-carrying capacity and deflection of LB beams was developed. Experimental results confirmed that the model had enough accuracy for design calculation.