Experimental Investigation of Low-Cost Bamboo Composite (LCBC) Slender Structural Columns in Compression

This paper experimentally investigates the behavior of innovative sustainable Low-Cost Bamboo Composite (LCBC) structural columns under compressive loading. The LCBC columns are manufactured from bamboo culms in combination with bio-based resins to form composite structural columns. Different LCBC cross-sectional configurations are investigated in this study, including the Russian doll (RD), Big Russian doll (BRD), Hawser (HAW), and Scrimber (SCR). Two bio-based resins, including one bio-epoxies and one furan-based resin, in addition to a soft bio-based filler and a synthetic epoxy resin, are applied. The bamboo species used as the cast-in-place giant bamboo for all configurations include Moso, Guadua, and Tali. Slender LCBC columns showed maximum stress equal to 60 MPa at failure. The study found that the samples with bio-epoxy resin (BE2) exhibited enhanced material stiffness when compared to synthetic epoxy (EPX) and furan-based resin (PF1), while PF1 specimens demonstrated increased ductility. Among the specimens with Moso bamboo and BE2 resin, those with SCR and HAW configurations achieved the highest compressive strengths.