FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF PARAÍBA

CENTER OF TECNOLOGY
PÓS-GRADUATION IN URBANISM

DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL FIBRE AND POLYMER

COMPOSITE JOINTS FOR BAMBOO STRUCTURES

TINA MEYER – Ms. C. Urban Engineering UFPB (Brazil)

Dr. NORMANDO PERAZZO BARBOSA – Professor UFPB (Brazil)
Ph.D Sandro Marden Torres – Pos-Doctoral Research Fellow (Brazil)
Federal University of Paraíba
João Pessoa:700 th habitants the most oriental city of america

João Pessoa
 João Pessoa:
One of the oldest city of Brazil: 420 years

Fortaleza Santa Catarina

A lot of nice and calm beaches
T1

INTRODUCTION

¾ Idea: development of various types of joints for bamboo structures in urban

equipments, using non conventional materials.

Bandstand with bamboo structure, Brasilia Cover structure – Rio de Janeiro

Diapositiva 5

T1 Tina, 14/04/2006
T2

INTRODUCTION

¾ Characteristics wanted :

9 Flexibility

9 Easy assembly and disassembly

9 Lightness

9 Resistant to applied forces and climatic conditions.

Diapositiva 6

T2 flexibility: material capacitiy to answer the current needs

Assembly: for desplacements of the urban structures ; to keep the idea of mobility
light: to correspond with the bamboo caracteristics
Resistant: to garant a high durability of the structures
Tina, 14/04/2006
 INTRODUCTION

¾ Exemples of joints:

traditional modern

Lopez (Colombia) Conbam (Germany)

Joints with ropes Joints with steel/ composite materials
 INTRODUCTION

¾ Application form of cylindrical joints:

Tent structures Bamboo aqueducts

 METHODOLOGY

MATERIALS

¾ Bamboo vulgaris
¾ Blankets of sisal (Sisal Rug)
¾ Blankets of jute
¾ Polyester resin + catalyst
 METHODOLOGY

CARACTERIZATION OF THE BAMBOO

¾ Compression Strength according to the AC 162 of INBAR Standard

¾ reached up to 46 MPa (bottom) and 59 MPa (middle)

 METHODOLOGY

RESIN PROPERTIES

1. Mixture of the resin with different percentage of catalyst

2. Making of the cylindrical samples (h = 2 x D)
3. Test of setting time
4. Compression Test
 METHODOLOGY

CARACTERIZATION OF THE COMPOSITES

¾ Tension strength
according to ASTM 3039
 METHODOLOGY

DEVELOPEMENT OF TWO TYPES OF JOINTS

the bandaging form the prefabricated form

 METHODOLOGY

MOLDING PROCESS
¾ Bandaging form

1. Mixture of the resin with

catalyst
2. Immersion of the sisal
stripes with the matrix
3. Application at the bamboo
culms
 METHODOLOGY

MOLDING PROCESS
¾ Prefabricated form

1. Mixture of the resin with catalyst

2. Manual application of the matrix on the top of the
sisal blankets
3. Casting of Cylindrical Internal Mold
4. Casting of External Wood Mold
 METHODOLOGY

JOINT WITH BANDAGING FORM

¾ Compression Test
Verification of the contact length

1. Two pieces of bamboo separated with EPS

2. Application of the joint through bandaging
3. Compression test
 METHODOLOGY

BENDING
¾ Four point test
 RESULTS

CARACTERIZATION OF THE RESIN

Compression – resin

Compr. Final Initial

Catalyst Strength set.tim. set.time
(%) (MPa) (min) (min) 160,00

1,0 95,26 35 25
140,00
2,00%
1,5 106,73 25 20
120,00 1,90% 3,50%
2,10% 3,00%
1,9 114,77 15 10 1,50% 2,20%
1,00%
Tensao (M P a)

2,0 127,39 20 10 100,00 2,50%

2,1 110,18 15 10
80,00
2,2 103,29 15 10 5,00%
60,00
2,5 89,52 20 15
3,0 107,88 20 15 40,00

3,5 113,62 20 10 20,00

5,0 61,97 15 10
0,00

Catalisador (%)
 RESULTS

MOLDING PROCESS
¾ Knowledge about ideal catalyst content improved the lamination
process
¾ The prefabricated joint presented a more homogenous surface than the
one with bandaging.

prefabricated form bandaged form

 RESULTS

INFLUENCE OF THE COVER LENGTH (sisal)

sample 7 sample 8 sample 9

cover length (cm) 7 8 9
diameter ext (cm) 5,2 5,3 5,35
diameter int (cm) 3,95 4 4,15
area (cm²) 8,98 9,50 8,95
loadmax (kgF) 2750 2300 1625
tensionmax (MPa) 30,61 24,22 18,15

¾ The joint is sensible to geometric variations (roughness, diameter,

parallelism, etc)
¾ Because of eccentricities and diameter variations, the bamboo ends
can go through each other, causing joint damaging
¾ The culm ends must be in good contact so that the sisal-polymer
composite adherence is improved.
 RESULTS

INFLUENCE OF THE COVER LENGTH (jute)

sample 10 sample 11 sample 12

cover length (cm) 8 9 10

diameter ext (cm) 5,7 5,525 5,75

diameter int (cm) 4,675 4,475 4,475
area (cm²) 8,35 8,25 10,24
load (kgF) 1200 1125 1675
tension (MPa) 14,37 13,64 16,36

¾ Examples of failure caused by eccentricity

¾ Jute-Polymer mat buckled prior to its failure
¾ Jute composite tension limit was smaller than that
of the sisal composite connection
 RESULTS

MECHANICAL TESTS

Compression – joints (prefabricated)

30,00

26,90%; 25,18
25,00

20,00
Tension (MPa)

15,00 28,40%; 14,48

29,50%; 10,07
10,00

5,00

0,00
1

Composites
 RESULTS

CARACTERIZATION OF THE RESIN-FIBRE COMPOSITE

Tension – Composite (sisal)

test 1 test 4 test 5 test 7

25

20

15
Stress (MPa)

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Strain (%)
 RESULTS

MECHANICAL TESTS

Bending – bamboo

¾ The stress at the support

contact caused the failure
of the culm by longitudinal
shear stress (preferred
fibers orientation).
¾ The bending resistance
was higher when the culm
nodes were in contact with
the support (greater
concentration of fibers).

Without node With node

 RESULTS

MECHANICAL TESTS

Bending – joint

¾ The shear stress caused

the failure along the
longitudinal section of Without pins
the culm, but not within
the composite joints.
¾ The culm detachment
from the composite joint
was greatly improved by
adding metal bolts.

With pins
 CONCLUSION

Although these are preliminary studies, its possible to conclude:

About the matrix:

¾ Catalyst content influences the compressive strength of the hardened

polymer, which reached up to 120 MPa

¾ The increase of strength with catalyst content was not linear. Its maximum
strength was observed for the amount of 2% of the catalyst by mass of the
polymer (used for the lamination process).
 CONCLUSION

About the joint:

¾ Under compression the joint works better if there is a direct contact between
the extremities. The load capacity is directly linked with the contact area of
the culms, their dimensions and their linearity of the tops.

¾ The jute composite presented inferior compression strength than the sisal
composite due to its mesh openness and thinner ropes, even so it could be
improved with more fiber blanket layers.

¾ The greater the fiber content, the lower the compressive strength.

¾ The bandaged connection behaved very well in bending and the presence
of bolts was important to avoid the composite detachment, however not
much as far as strength is concerned.
 CONCLUSION

About the tests in execution:

¾ The mechanical performance of bandaged and prefabricated joints with

more than two culms.

¾ The role of the pins on the tension behavior of the joints:

¾ the diameter of the pins

¾ the number of pins
¾ the minimum distance between the pins and the joint ends
 ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

to the organization comity for the

invitation

to the laboratory of materials of the

UFPB (Brazil) for the support

Brazilian Agencies FINEP-CNPQ-CAPES

for improving laboratory facilities