Compiled & Excerpted by Team IAnD from
‘Building up Bamboo’ feature by Jennifer Chu from MIT News Office
Photography: Courtesy MIT & World Wide Web
Analyzing bamboo's microstructure ©Jennifer Chu/MIT |
MIT Prof. Lorna Gibson’s
research on the structural strength of bamboo could open significant doors to
establishing bamboo as an alternative building material to concrete and steel…
Looking much beyond the
application of bamboo as a straightforward building material or accessory, MIT
scientists, along with architects and wood processors from England and Canada,
are looking for ways to turn it into a construction material more akin to wood
composites, like plywood.
. |
The idea is that a stalk,
or culm, can be sliced into smaller pieces, which can then be bonded together
to form sturdy blocks - much like conventional wood composites. A structural
product of this sort could be used to construct more resilient buildings -
particularly in places like China, India, and Brazil, where bamboo is abundant.
. |
Led by Lorna Gibson, the
Matoula S. Salapatas Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, researchers
at MIT have used their data to develop a model that predicts the strength of a
given section of bamboo. The model may help wood processors determine how to
assemble a particular bamboo product.
As it turns out, bamboo is
densest near its outer walls. As Gibson explains it, “One section of bamboo may
be more suitable for a given product than another; based on its density, we’re
looking at how we might optimize the selection of bamboo materials in the
structure that you make.”
. |
“One
of the impressive things is how fast bamboo grows,” Gibson notes. Researchers have
used electron microscopy to obtain images of the bamboo microstructure and
create complete, microscale cross-sections of the entire culm wall at different
heights along the stalk.
. |
The stiffness and density
data has then been used to create a model that accurately predicts the
mechanical properties of bamboo as a function of position in the stalk. Gibson
says wood processors that she works with in Canada may use the model as a guide
to assemble durable bamboo blocks of various shapes and sizes.
Cross-section as seen under a microscope ©the researchers |
Going forward, the
processors, in turn, will send the MIT team composite samples of bamboo to
characterize. For example, a product may be processed to contain bamboo along
with other materials to reduce the density of the product and make it resistant
to insects. Such composite materials, Gibson says, will have to be understood
at the microscale.
“While bamboo has
similarities to wood, as this study shows, the material also has very distinct
properties. Although current approaches to developing structural engineered
bamboo have tended to focus on mimicking engineered wood products, the future
will probably lie in innovating new approaches that can better enhance the
natural advantages of this unique material,” says Oliver Frith, acting director
of programme for the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan, headquartered
in Beijing.
In 1988 when visiting Hong Kong i was awestruck by the bamboo scaffolding rising to majestic heights. Great research and beautiful images!
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