Flexural load and deflection behavior of structural Bamboo filled with cement mortar

Bamboo has been significantly and rapidly used to build temporal and permanent structures since time immemorial. However, this renewable natural material has a low bearing capacity, limiting its application to structures under light loads. Therefore, this research was carried out to determine an innovative scheme capable of enhancing bamboo's load-bearing by filling the cavity with cement mortar. Furthermore, a study was carried out to experiment flexural load carrying capacity and the deflection of mortar-filled structural bamboo by considering the diameter and node parameters. A total of 12 specimens were examined using a four-point bending protocol. The result showed the ultimate flexural load carrying capacity of mortar-filled bamboo specimens are higher than those of the conventional bamboo specimens. Specifically, mortar filled bamboo specimen with a diameter of 70 mm was significantly better, 41.10 and 47.06%, as compared than the conventional bamboo in terms of its flexural load carrying capacity for specimen without and with nodes, respectively. Increases in flexural load carrying capacity were also observed for the mortar-filled bamboo specimens having 80 and 90 mm diameter and these observed increases were recorded as 104.55 and 112.00%, and 48.72 and 60.74%, respectively for specimen without and with nodes. Furthermore, the deflection of mortar-filled bamboo elements are substantially greater than those of conventional. Finally, the advantages of the bamboo diameter and bamboo nodes on the flexural load carrying capacity indicated that these essential findings need to be carefully considered in designing structural elements for both mortar-filled and conventional bamboos.