Incorporating optimized bamboo fiber concrete into bamboo reinforced slabs for eco-friendly structures

To enhance the tensile strength and energy absorptive properties of concrete structural members, traditional steel reinforcements are offered. But, due to excessive exploitation, this material is depleted causing enough inadequacy and high costs. On the other hand, the process of producing steel produces carbon dioxide and helps in the greenhouse effect. Bamboo is a sustainable resource which can be used as an alternative to steel reinforcement. This study focuses on the performance of bamboo-reinforced slab as an eco-friendly construction material. A comparative study was carried out on the steel-reinforced slabs and bamboo-reinforced slabs in terms of load-deflection behavior, surface crack patterns, and failure modes. Bamboo fibers and bamboo stem ash were further added to the concrete matrix as auxiliary materials to make the slabs more sustainable, serving as an additive and a partial cement replacement, respectively. By use of Taguchi experimental design, the most desirable dosage of concrete mix was established, and then the methodology was applied to authenticate the results. Bamboo reinforcement was bonded with good strength by using epoxy treatment. According to the experimental results, TSGBRCS and TBRCS reached an ultimate load of 72.63 kN (1.39% higher than the steel reinforced slab’s capacity) and 69.43 kN (97% of the steel reinforced slab’s capacity), respectively. Also, at ultimate load, TSGBRCS and TBRCS undergone an average deflection of 8.36 mm and 7.16 mm respectively compared to steel’s benchmark of 7.7 mm. TSGBRCS and TBRCS continued to retain 92.4% and 79.6% of steel reinforced slab’s ductility index respectively and also 94.1% and 85.9% of conventional steel reinforced slab’s stiffness. The experimental results evident that the developed bamboo-reinforced slab panel may be used as a viable alternative in the future.