Abstract:
Study and research are needed to design and analyze the Yushania Alpina bamboo species for strip panel board formwork application. The research was conducted to determine the compressive strength of bamboo culms to select the appropriate age of bamboo. Four-year-old bamboo culms were prepared and strips were made, later the strips were arranged using 0°, and 90° ply arrangement in 5 layers and bonded using urea formaldehyde resin and hot pressing the panels for 20 minutes at a temperature of 100 degree Celsius using hot presser. Samples for bending, compression, and tension tests were prepared and tested. The bamboo strip board panel formworks feasibility was studied. Tests of bamboo culm compression for samples taken from the top, mid, and bottom positions of the culm of the two-year-old culms gave 79.01MPa, 73.61MPa, and 69.88MPa. Three-year-old culms gave 84.68MPa, 90.2MPa, and80.34MPa, while four-year-old culms gave 86.21MPa, 81.02MPa, and 76.65MPa. The bamboo strip panel board bending test gave average bending stress of 275.43MPa &259.77MPa for dry samples which were taken from the long and short direction of the board respectively, While Average bending stress of 211 MPa&196.89MPa was recorded on soaked samples taken from the long and short direction of the board respectively. The bamboo strip panel board compressive strength test parallel to the surface of the board results were 40MPa&34.23MPa for the dry samples in the long & short directions of the board respectively. The soaked sample's average compressive strength was 32.75MPa&29.34MPa in the long& short directions of the board respectively. The average tensile test parallel to the surface of the board gave a result of 85.74MPa &71.13MPa in dry and soaked samples of long direction and average bending stress of 62.3MPa&50.44MPa in dry and soaked samples of short direction of the board. Change in sample-taking direction and soaking of the samples had reduced the compressive, tensile, and bending strength of the bamboo panel stripboards. The mechanical properties observed and the feasibility study have shown bamboo strip boards from Yushania Alpina bamboo species can be used as a panel formwork. Finally, finite element analysis was conducted using ABAQUS software and the models were verified by the experimental data in their failure pattern and stress values.
Key words: form-work, Yushania Alpina, bamboo strip, compression, tension, bending.