Performance Evaluation of Chemically Treated Bamboo Reinforced Concrete

Abstract

In the recent times a lot of construction has been undertaken especially in the developing countries and also due to this urge of construction new technologies have come up and one of those is replacing bamboo with steel as a reinforcement. Using bamboo as a substitute for steel is majorly because of the great cost of reinforcing steel in the reinforced concrete. As a need of the hour, more sustainable alternatives in the construction industry are being found and one such option is utilising bamboo as a reinforcement substitute to the costly steel reinforcements, as conventional bamboo is readily obtainable in various tropical and sub-tropical regions. So, this project helps to evaluate structural and environmental performance of chemically treated bamboo reinforced concrete as an alternative to steel reinforced concrete. Hence the use of appropriate sized whole bamboo culms (bar) or bamboo splint (splits or round strips) has been proposed to replace it as a reinforcement instead of steel. Bamboo splits were used by treating them with adhesives known as Araldite and Sikadur 32-Gel for water-proofing to avoid bamboo swelling in the mix, rising the bond strength and toughness of bamboo as reinforcement. Two tests that were performed are Flexural strength test and Split tensile strength test. The outcomes showed, bamboo with suitable chemical treatment is a strong and sustainable substitute for steel reinforced concrete for lightweight construction.