Experimental Investigation on Bamboo as Sustainable Reinforcement Alternative for Rural Construction

Bamboo is readily available and low-cost material in rural areas and can be cultivated easily. The use of bamboo lowers the cost of construction of the structures and provides a sustainable alternative to steel especially in rural regions. In the present study, oven-dried and epoxy coated bamboo is used as a reinforcement. The bond strength between bamboo reinforcement and concrete is checked by performing pull out test, on the specimens cast in triplicates for samples of oven-dried bamboo (B), plain epoxy coated bamboo (E), epoxy with sand coated bamboo (ES) and epoxy with binding wires (EB), each for 7 days,14 days and 28 days of curing. It is found that the bamboo specimen with plain epoxy coating gives the highest bond strength with concrete amongst all the above-tested specimens. As the plain epoxy-coated reinforcement shows the highest bond strength, it is then checked for flexure using STAAD PRO for a single storied rural housing. It is found that the structure with bamboo reinforcement is safe in flexure.