Flexural Properties of Structural Laminated Bamboo/Solid Wood Composite Box Hollow Beams

Abstract

Laminated Moso bamboo members were fabricated with different alignments and used as flanges with Japanese cedar lumber as web members to investigate the flexural performance of laminated bamboo/wood box hollow beams. The results showed that the efficiencies of finger joints in the bending tests were 64.3 and 53.2% for beams respectively laminated horizontally and vertically with bamboo laminae. The maximum bending capacities of the box hollow beams using laminated bamboo members either horizontally or vertically as flanges were 31.3 and 49.7%, respectively, higher than those of beams with Japanese cedar flanges. Furthermore, improved maximum bending capacities, of 69.1 and 74.2%, were respectively found for laminated bamboo/wood box hollow beams further reinforced with 10 d box nails and wood screws between the interface of the bamboo flange and solid wood web compared to that of solid wood box hollow beams. Based on the design deflection limitations, box hollow beams fabricated with laminated bamboo flanges can provide equivalent distributed loads of 1.85~2.09 KN m^(-1), corresponding to loads 30.9 to 47.5% higher than those of solid beams.