An approach to search the potentiality of node in bamboo strip reinforced composites

Abstract

Bamboo has recently entered the composite sector with some attractive labels such as ‘green’. The current commercial manufacturing method of bamboo composite removes the node’s portion of bamboo culm during bamboo processing. This method generates a high amount of solid waste materials along with processing complexity and the scientific merit of this practice is also questionable. This research investigates the effects of culm nodes on bamboo based composite properties. In this study an approach to produce bamboo strips reinforced epoxy composites and their mechanical properties (e.g. tensile, flexural and impact properties) were reported. It was demonstrated that mechanical properties of composites slightly varied with nodes and internodes. As expected, the addition of bamboo strips has significantly improved mechanical properties of polymeric resin. Composites along with nodes part had the highest mechanical properties in terms of tensile strength, tensile modulus and flexural strength. In contrast, composites made with internodes showed the highest mechanical properties in terms of tensile strain and impact strength. However, the difference between their mechanical properties were not significant which revealed that bamboo node may be used as potential materials in bio-based composite industry.