Abstract

SANCHEZ MEDRANO, María Teresa; ESPUNA MUJICA, José Adán  and  ROUX GUTIERREZ, Rubén Salvador. Bamboo as a structural element: species Guadua amplexifolia. Nova scientia [online]. 2016, vol.8, n.17, pp.657-677. ISSN 2007-0705.

The usage of any material like structural element demands fundamentally the knowledge of its physical-mechanical properties, with the objective of knowing and take the maximum advantage of their properties and/or dismiss it if considered useless. This text presents the results obtained from the study of the physical-mechanical behavior of the bamboo from the species Guadua amplexifolia which grows North of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. 100 culms with an average height of 5.5 meters were used, taking into consideration the cutting methods and traditional seasoning. This research was supported in the methodologies employed in the consulted sources and the proposals from the Standards of the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan, as for physical and mechanical properties such as tests for compression, tension and cutting parallel to the grain and bending. As a scale the results for the species that grow in Monte Blanco, Veracruz, from the studies (Ordoñez, 1999) were taken into consideration.

Average values from the last Efforts of failure for Compression, Cutting and Tension parallel to the bending as well for Flexion perpendicular to the fiber were obtained. It was compared with the scale and the registers obtained resulted similar, observing a very little variation in the results, possibly due to the anisotropy of the material, geographical location and age of the culms. For the Compression parallel to the fiber tests, failures were presented for longitudinal shear, due to the constitution of the material's fiber, diagonal tension and in a really low percentage flattening in the walls and faces of the test tube. For the Cutting test, failures were presented in the longitudinal shear, clearly visible because of the constitution of the material's fibers with considerable displacement at the walls of the test tube and in a lower percentage failure in longitudinal shear as well as in flattening. The species Guadua Amplexifolia showed similar properties to others studied in South America and are actually being used mainly in construction of housing, which leads to conclude, according to the properties showed here, that it may result feasible as an alternate structural material in construction.

Keywords : Bamboo; Guadua amplexifolia; Physical-mechanical properties.