Behaviour of short and long columns made from bamboo scrimber subjected to uniaxial compression

Engineered bamboo has been getting recognition as a forerunner in terms of desirable mechanical properties and a sustainable construction material. One of the most widespread variants is bamboo scrimber, also known as Parallel Bamboo Strand Lumber (PBSL). This paper presents a holistic investigation into the uniaxial compressive capacity of short bamboo scrimber columns in terms of failure mode, size effect, aspect ratio and failure strain. The studies in focus have been collated from published articles in literature. Furthermore, intermediately slender to long columns have been investigated with respect to the most common international timber standards and, elastic and inelastic theories. It is shown that the dominant failure mode affects the ultimate strength, especially a failure mode called kinking/local buckling. A size effect was observed and discussed with respect to the failure modes. In addition, a tangent modulus theory was proposed from a constitutive model called the Full-range Ramberg Osgood model that could better predict the critical buckling stress of intermediate-long columns over the conventional theory. Moreover, a modified AS1720 design approach was proposed to accommodate the inherent column behaviour of bamboo scrimber. Finally, a modified Newlin-Gahagan approach was proposed which produced consistent predictions for the experimental buckling stress for columns with varying slenderness across four different studies.