Abstract
Bamboo is increasingly considered a suitable alternative to established construction materials due to its superior sustainability and relatively low environmental impact. This material has been adopted in construction both in natural and engineered forms in temporary works and structural elements, respectively. Like other biomaterials, bamboo is sensitive to moisture producing permanent deformations that can affect its mechanical properties. To evaluate the influence of moisture on the compression, shear and splitting response of moso bamboo, a detailed experimental investigation is carried out. Culm tubes with aspect ratio (H/D) of 1.0 and 3.0 were tested under the above loading conditions to failure either in oven-dry, ambient-dry or fully saturated conditions. Apart from conventional measurements, the use of digital image correlation techniques enables a detailed assessment of the stress localisation characteristics, including crack initiation and propagation within the bamboo wall tube. Comparative assessments in terms of compression, shear and splitting resistance as a function of moisture and aspect ratio are performed and discussed. The results show that an increase in moisture from oven-dry to ambient-dry to wet conditions shows a proportional decrease in strength by up to 43%, but a slight increase in ductility, as a function of the loading type. Short samples achieved between 5.1-163.6% higher maximum average stress compared to the long samples, indicating increasing the sample aspect ratio decreases the tube strength.