Variation of mechanical properties of single bamboo fibers (Dendrocalamus latiflorus Munro) with respect to age and location in culms

Abstract

There is a growing need to characterize the mechanical properties of single bamboo fibers with their high potential in commercial applications. In this paper, an improved microtensile technique has been applied to measure the tensile strength of fibers isolated from Ma bamboo (Dendrocalamus latiflorus Munro) as an important commercial bamboo species in China. The property variation with respect to the age and locations within a culm was in focus. Ma bamboo fibers had superior stiffness and strength data compared with those of softwood fibers. Four-year-old Ma bamboo fibers are stiffer and stronger than 1-year-old fibers. Their in-trunk variation is rather small both in radial and longitudinal directions. This is due to the relatively constant microfibrillar angle in bamboo culms. Accordingly, the large variations in the bulk mechanical properties of bamboo are mainly attributable to fiber distribution density in the culm rather than the fiber itself.

Tensile behaviour and fracture mechanism of moso bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens)

“…Natural biomaterials, such as wood, nacre, bone, and bamboo, exhibit remarkable mechanical properties and fracture resistance due mainly to the hierarchical structure and arrangement of their components with longitudinally orientated stiff fibres incorporated into soft parenchyma matrix (Lo et al 2004;Wegst and Ashby 2004;George 2005;Fratzl and Weinkamer 2007;Bhushan 2009;Wang et al 2013). If new structural materials are to be synthetised by mimicking natural structures, understanding the relationships between hierarchical structures and functional properties is important (Okumura and Gennes 2001;Wang et al 2001;Phani and Simunovic 2005;Meyers et al 2008;Munch et al 2008;Launey et al 2010a,b;Weinkamer and Fratzl 2011;Fratzl 2012).…”

“…At a macroscopic scale, bamboo culm exhibits a hollow structure with a gradual decrease in diameter from the base to the top (Wang 2001;Ghavami et al 2003). At the microscopic scale, the shape, size and density of vascular bundles (VBs) are graded in both the radial (R) and longitudinal (L) direction (Liese 1980(Liese , 1992(Liese , 1998Ray et al 2005;Wang et al 2013). At the nanoscopic scale, fibre cell walls have a multilayered wall structure with various microfibril angles (Grosser and Liese 1971;Liese 1987;Yu et al 2011).…”

Compression properties of vascular boundles and parenchyma of rattan (Plectocomia assamica Griff)

“…Similar information is not yet available for rattan stems. In general, the study of single fiber and other structural details of bamboo with regard to spatial distribution is more advanced (Yu et al 2011;Peng et al 2014;Wang et al 2014) than that of rattan.…”

Comparison of the flexural behavior of natural and thermo-hydro-mechanically densified Moso bamboo

“…This MFA difference could be related to the difference in properties of the densified (inner culm wall) and high density natural (outer culm wall) materials. However, other studies, which use a different definition of MFA, find little variation radially across the culm wall (Yu et al 2007;Wang et al 2010Wang et al , 2014. This suggests the MFA difference found by Wang et al (2012) may be related to the meso-scale changes in the tissue (i.e.…”