Design and experimental verification of easily constructible bamboo footbridges for rural areas

Paraskeva, Themelina S.; Grigoropoulos, Georgios; Dimitrakopoulos, Elias G.

doi:10.1016/j.engstruct.2017.04.044

Cited by 53 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…In terms of failure, the five samples presented four cracks which developed suddenly along the central third of the culm, each crack distributed at approximately 90 degrees ( Figure 5) around the pole's circumference. A high percentage of failure cases has been reported in the literature [10,18] as caused by shear or crushing around the points of application of the loads. This failure behaviour does not represent the characteristic failure of a bending test of thin-walled tubes and might be caused by a local effect.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The digital mesh model was comprised of an external surface that covered the entire bamboo geometry and a portion of the internal surface at each end. According to the literature [6][7][8]18] the wall-thickness tends to decrease linearly from bottom to top, therefore, the captured portion of the internal section was used to estimate the wall-thickness along the length of the pole by linear interpolation. A polygon mesh model of a bamboo pole can offer advantages for design, visual grading and manufacturing processes but it would not be suitable for a FE analysis of a basic skeletal structural model.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Digital analysis of the geometric variability of bamboo poles in bending

Lorenzo

Mimendi

2019

MATEC Web Conf.

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The importance of sustainable materials in the building industry has grown during the last decades due to the negative impact that industrialised materials have caused over the environment as a consequence of the rapid increase of urban areas, especially in developing countries. To alleviate this problem, research has focused on the utilisation of bamboo, a ready-to-use natural material with a high potential of playing an important role in the future development of the building industry, however, the limitations of the material have not been properly addressed and therefore, the current use of bamboo in the building industry is negligible. This paper presents a digital approach to analyse the structural effects that the inherent geometric variability causes in bamboo poles subjected to bending effects. In contrast with current methodologies that apply the use of conventional tools to determine average geometric properties of a bamboo pole, this work adopted a combination of material testing and 3D scanning of a series of bamboo elements, in order to define suitable parameters for structural analysis that accurately represents the geometric variability of the poles. The results confirmed that the geometric variability produces significant effects that had not been considered before in the mechanical characterisation of bamboo, and that could not have been possible to identify without the use of digital technology. This work encourages the future development of methodologies that implement the use of digital technology to increase the structural understanding of bamboo and therefore, offer a robust platform for the general implementation of bamboo culms in the building industry.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital analysis of the geometric variability of bamboo poles in bending

Lorenzo

Mimendi

2019

MATEC Web Conf.

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“…He found that the main geometric variabilities on the geometry of bamboo were due to a) tapering, b) irregular internodal distances, c) variable cross sectional properties along its axis and d) out-of-straightness. As such, the accurate determination of geometric properties is fundamental to study the mechanical properties of round bamboo [7][8][9][10][11], behaviour of connections [12,13] and structural analysis [14,15] for which determining the pole's geometric variability is fundamental. Nevertheless, the only official international standard, ISO 22157-1-2004 [16], focused on the determination of the physical and mechanical properties of bamboo, is based on basic measurements of a limited and discrete number of properties that fail to capture the significant variation in the geometry of bamboo poles described by Janssen [6].…”

Section: Natural Geometrymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Key measurements were obtained from the mesh model in order for them to be validated against the corresponding manual measurements extracted from the physical poles. Due to occlusions, the inner surface of the bamboo was just acquired at the ends, however, according to the literature [2,5,7,15] it has been found through the studies of different species (Phyllostachys Edulis Riv., Bambusa Pervariabilis, Phyllostachys Pubescens, Dendrocalamus Giganteus) that the wall thickness of bamboo tends to decrease linearly from bottom to top. Therefore, the portion of the inner surfaces were linearly extrapolated to generate an inner surface for each individual mesh file.…”

Section: Digital Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital workflow for the accurate computation of the geometric properties of bamboo culms for structural applications

Lorenzo

Mimendi

2019

MATEC Web Conf.

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Bamboo is one of the most promising sustainable construction materials due to the large endemic natural reserves prevalent in the Southern Hemisphere. However, industrialised materials, such as concrete, steel and aluminium have overshadowed the application of natural bamboo culms, due to the high-quality assurance achieved over decades refining the production processes of structural elements manufactured from the former. As a result, the physical, geometric and mechanical properties of these industrialised structural elements are quantifiable, predictable and in agreement with international standards. This research presents the details of a digital workflow to quantify the inherent geometric variability of bamboo culms as part of a new quality assurance process for this natural structural element. This workflow relies on the use of a mid-range, commercially available structured-light 3D scanner to accurately capture a point cloud of the bamboo geometry and generate a corresponding polygon mesh. Digital models of three different bamboo species were validated through comparison with key physical measurements finding that the adoption of these digital models can significantly improve the accuracy and efficiency of manual methods due to the complex irregularities found in bamboo culms. This work demonstrates the benefits of adopting a non-destructive, reverse-engineering approach to quantify the geometric properties of bamboo compared to traditional tools and methods. Overall, this research shows the potential of digital technologies to support the adoption of this natural material allowing for the re-assessment of design workflows and providing an opportunity for bamboo to compete with industrialised materials.

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“…(Awaludin & Andriani 2014) for example used FRP wraps with epoxy resin, which brought significant improvements in performance. (Paraskeva et al 2017) utilized stainless steel hose-clamps to provide confinement and thus increase the resistance to splitting for the culms used in the bamboo footbridge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing the performance of transversely confined multi-culm bamboo to steel connections

Pradhan¹,

Dimitrakopoulos²,

Paraskeva³

2019

Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies (SCMT)

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The present research experimentally examines the axial behavior of transversely confined multi-culm bamboo to steel connections, using Kao Jue (Bambusa pervariabilis) bamboo species. The study characterizes under axial monotonic loading, the performance in terms of strength, ductility and failure modes. It then evaluates changes in performance under axial quasi-static reversed cyclic loading. Findings reveal that transverse confinement (through hose-clamps) is highly effective in preventing longitudinal splitting of bamboo culms. The connections exhibit large plastic deformations with sufficient strength and ductility. When compared to the monotonic response, early bolt-fracture hinders the cyclic performance. The connections nevertheless comply with the philosophy of capacity-based designthe ductile components (i.e. the bolts) fail before the brittle components (i.e. the culms). Notably, the adopted European Yield Model can analytically estimate the experimental yield loads with good accuracy. This ultimately indicates a path towards a more rational and engineered design of bamboo structures.

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Design and experimental verification of easily constructible bamboo footbridges for rural areas

Cited by 53 publications

References 16 publications

Digital analysis of the geometric variability of bamboo poles in bending

Digital analysis of the geometric variability of bamboo poles in bending

Digital workflow for the accurate computation of the geometric properties of bamboo culms for structural applications

Characterizing the performance of transversely confined multi-culm bamboo to steel connections

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