Author(s)

R. Kappel, C. Mattheck, K. Bethge & I. Tesari

Abstract

Bamboo is a renewable resource which is abound especially in tropical areas. It is a very common raw material used within a width range of applications. A lot of research was done to investigate its mechanical properties and improve bamboo as a building material. Concerning structural mechanics and materials science, bamboo is an excellent example for natural lightweight design and is the opposite to trees; for bamboo a height over diameter ratio of 80 and higher is common and not correlated with cumulated failure. Although bamboo belongs to the botanical group of the graminaceae, some of its characteristics resemble those of wood. But its growth characteristics and microstructure are different from trees. Compared to wood, in bamboo only longitudinally growth and no lateral or radial growth occurs

Keywords