Bamboo Fiber Composites

Natural fiber composites exhibit various advantages like biodegradability after the life of components, minimal or no emission of greenhouse gases and less pollution. Apart from the domestic and small scale industrial application of these composites, are also employed in military, automobile and aerospace applications owing to their maintenance of sustainable environment, design flexibility and continuous improvement in facing several challenges. Bamboo is one of the well-known and wide spread plants all around the globe. It is characterized by multifaceted merits such as high stiffness and fiber strength, ease of processing, sustainable use of fibers, eco-friendliness and rapid plant growing cycle. Bamboo fiber reinforced composites are considered to possess enhanced environmental friendliness than any other synthetic fiber reinforced composites such as glass fiber reinforced composites and they render less impact over the environment, same performance for the similar fiber content and allowing reduced use of toxic base polymers. This chapter deals with a comprehensive view of individual bamboo fiber reinforced composites as well as hybridization of bamboo fibers with other fibers. This may pave way for the researchers working on bamboo fibers to reach newer heights in terms of properties and applications.

The exploration and utilization of natural eco-friendly materials with high performance, biodegradability and renewability is a need of the hour, in the aspect of diminishing the detrimental effects of synthetic materials and thereby to pledge a sustainable tomorrow. The application of bamboo-based materials expanded largely worldwide due to its significant properties over conventional materials as bio-degradable, recyclable, sustainable, luxurious, and environmentally friendly benefits that maintains the ecological standards. This chapter principally deals with the bamboo geographical distribution, bamboo production, anatomy, bamboo clum properties, bamboo fiber extraction techniques, fiber characterization and the adorability of bamboo fiber as a potential natural reinforcement material for bio-composites and its application in various sectors.

With the development up to 75 cm in a solitary day, Bamboo has enrolled its name as quickest developing plants on the planet. It’s being utilized in various areas in various works and furthermore being utilized for building materials and so forth at a bigger scope. In the event that we will contrast Bamboo and steel, at that point can see that Bamboo is a lot less expensive than steel even Bamboo properties like high elastic, adaptability, light weight, sturdiness is obviously superior to the next structure materials. Right around 500 unique types of bamboo has found in our universe even in some cases inside several subspecies can check their quality. One of the heavenly bamboo “Guadia angustofolia” found in Colombia which gives a higher caliber of timber straight and solid. Two subspecies of bamboo known as ‘guadua castilla’ and ‘guadua mecana’ exist in nature which height comes to up to 25 m and a breadth up to 18 cm. Presently in current situation there are a significant number of businesses are looking forward as an elective choice in type of Bamboo due to having properties like reasonable, bottomless, minimal effort and great explicit quality. In this current research scarcely any audits and explores on the warm, mechanical and some different properties like high malleable, light weight, durability and so forth have been appeared. The audits incorporate how the specialists set up their investigations, the bamboo species utilized and the outcomes got.

The length of bamboo culms makes the obtained fibers promising for application in composites, both for the reinforcement of oil-based matrices and of biomatrices. However, the varietal diversity of bamboo species and the mode of extraction from the plant, which can involve mechanical and chemical stages, both contribute in changing the morphology of the fibers and their performance. A number of studies exist in trying to relate the above aspects to the performance of the obtained composites, which are reviewed in this chapter. For the aforementioned reasons, the existing literature gives scattered evidence of bamboo potential in composite, despite the inherently outstanding properties of this plant. This has been explained by the difficulties in controlling mechanical and morphological properties of extracted fibers, and as the consequence of the obtained composites.

Bamboo has been traditionally used in sports and musical equipments, household appliances, interior furnishing and decoration for many years. Other than the usefulness of bamboo in the product form, studies indicate that fibres extracted from the bamboo tree can also be used as reinforcement in composites. Bamboo fibres can be easily extracted and are available in chopped form, as long fibres and as woven mats. The bamboo fibres possess superior tensile properties and high strength to weight ratio, an important criteria for reinforcement in composite materials. This article discusses the influence of fibre parameters such as fibre orientation, fibre loading, fibre architecture, etc. on mechanical and thermal properties of the composites. Fibre treatments that has been carried out by researchers to improve the fibre-matrix adhesion between hydrophilic bamboo fibre and hydrophobic polymer matrix along with their mechanism and their impact in the mechanical and thermal properties has also been highlighted.

The present work aims to study the free vibration and damping properties of pure bamboo bioepoxy composites (B), pure basalt bioepoxy composites (b), and bamboo/basalt fiber reinforced hybrid bioepoxy composites. The pure and hybrid composites were fabricated by hand layup technique with different layering sequences such as BBBB, bbbb, BbBb, BBbb, BbbB, and bBBb. Experimental modal analysis was performed to obtain the natural frequency and the damping characteristics of the fiber reinforced composites. Variations in the natural frequency and damping characteristics were noticed with different layering sequences of the fiber in the composites. For instance, a higher natural frequency was obtained when bamboo fiber was stacked on the top surface and an enhanced damping behavior was noticed when basalt fibers were used as skin layer in hybrid composites. Numerical analysis was performed and the results were compared with the experimental results.

In the present investigation, the bamboo fiber incorporated epoxy-based composites were manufactured with chemically treated and raw bamboo cellulose fibers. The electric modulus, dielectric constant, alternating, and direct current conductivity investigations were performed to justify the dielectric properties of bamboo fiber reinforced epoxy laminates. The electric modulus and dielectric properties of the epoxy composites were measured from traditional impedance analyzer equipment. The dielectric behaviors were characterized by frequency function (0.01 Hz to 1 MHz) for the range of temperatures between 30 and 150 °C. The conductivity, volume resistivity, dissipation parameter, and dielectric constants of ERRBT epoxy composites were higher than that of ERSBT, and ERSABT epoxy composites. The activation energy, volume resistivity, and dissipation parameter reduced with the increment in frequency under all the range of temperatures. The combined salt and alkaline treatment decreases the water absorption capacity in bamboo cellulose fibers and hence enhances the dielectric and thermal insulation characteristics of the epoxy laminates. Also, the investigation of the adhesion of cellulose fiber in the polymer matrix with the scanning electron microscope (SEM) showed higher compatibility of bamboo cellulose fibers with the epoxy matrix.

The construction industry in most countries is considered to be the main consumer of energy and materials. Many research attempts concentrate on the use of renewable and sustainable materials in this area in an effort to ensure future generation sustainability. Because of higher steel costs and non-renewability, efforts are now being made to provide a sustainable low-cost alternative through the use of naturally available material. This increases construction prices exponentially and also damages the environment by producing large quantities of greenhouse gases. And, in the future, cheap and affordable infrastructure needs to be developed based on the bio-friendly building materials. A series of observational experiments, test the feasibility of using bamboo as concrete reinforcement. The reinforced bamboo can significantly strengthen the mortar and reduce the overall weight of the laminate due to its high strength to weight ratio. This chapter examined the potential for structural applications of bamboo fiber enhanced composites.

The development of novel sustainable eco-friendly materials gained increasing attention, in order to minimize the dependency on fossil fuels. Biopolymers and derivatives are among the chosen materials due to their natural origin, diversity and abundant character as well as being environmentally friendly thanks to their biodegradability. Biopolymers are complex biochemical units that vary due to their structures, they are synthesized from plants or living organisms. The advantages of these natural polymers are biodegradability and renewability, but used alone, they have low mechanical properties. To overcome this drawback, using composite materials which have a wide spectrum activity in industrial and engineering fields seems as an interesting choice. Recently, for composite manufacturing, interest shifted towards using fibers stemming from natural resources as reinforcements, because of their environmental benefits. Using a biodegradable matrix and a bio-resourced filler would result in a completely biodegradable composite. The available naturally occurring reinforcements are based upon jute, sisal, flax, hemp, and kenaf etc. We will be interested in the use of bamboo fibers as reinforcing fillers for biopolymer composites. Bamboo fibers own one of the most desirable combinations of low density (1.4 g/cm³) and good mechanical properties allowing them to compete with glass fibers in terms of specific stiffness and strength at similar volume fractions. In this chapter, we will present the latest biopolymers used in composite and nanocomposite materials and their main properties and characterization screening their combination to various types of bamboo fillers, starting from the raw materials to nanoscale dimensions and, we will show some main applications in interesting domains.

A Chinese poet once wrote, “Man can live without meat, but he will die without bamboo” because of its multifunctional and ecofriendly in nature. It has recently entered the textile and composite sector with some attractive labels such as ‘green’. The current commercial manufacturing methods of bamboo fibres and its reinforced composites are mainly based on removal of nodes portion of bamboo culm. This method generates a high amount of solid waste materials and hence the term ‘green’ becomes questionable. This research investigates the effects of culm nodes on fibre properties. In this study an approach to produce fibres from bamboo strips along with nodes has been reported. SEM analysis and X ray diffraction is done to get idea of surface morphology and crystallinity of bamboo fibre along with node respectively. The surface of bamboo fibre which have node was comparatively rough than the fibre in internode portion. It was reported that the bamboo fibres along with nodes had a lower crystalline than internodes fibres. The finding implies that the separation of fibres from bamboo strips along with nodes is difficult. In order to use these bamboo fibres for textile and composites applications fibre properties such as fineness and tenacity were examined. It was revealed that the fibres without node have high fineness and higher tenacity compared with node fibres. It is assumed that the single fibre length of this bamboo species is not enough for conventional spinning. However, spinnable length was achieved as fibre bundles.

In recent years, the textile market is proposed to have new types of fibers and yarns. The expansion of eco-friendly fabrics with organic, bio-degradable, and environmentally friendly nature is the current trend to reduce the carbon footprints as well as a carcinogenic effect caused by various synthetic materials. Ecofriendly fabrics possess natural characteristics that are user-friendly, cost-effective, and less harmful nature. The market demand for such fabrics is increasing with the consciousness of the consumer. Bamboo textiles provide a remarkable opportunity for developing sustainable and socio-economically significant textiles in the future. This chapter describes the fabrication and characterization methods for bamboo-based textiles and their futuristic prospects in the textile and apparel industries.

Nowadays, the utilization of natural fiber-reinforced polymeric composites has increased due to its eco-friendly nature. Among all the natural fiber reinforced polymer composites, bamboo fibers have caught attention as reinforcement in the polymeric matrix due to its superior mechanical properties, sustainability, and recyclability. The bonding mechanism of the polymeric matrix, bamboo fiber reinforcement, and their interface plays a critical part in governing the properties and performance of the formed composite materials. Factors like moisture content and lignin tend to reduce the interfacial adhesion between matrix and reinforcement phases resulting in the formation of defects and loss of strength that degrades the quality of the composite materials. That is why the enhancement of interfacial bonding/adhesion is required to ensure optimal properties of bamboo reinforced composite materials. This article summarizes the chemical treatments and the interfacial agents such as mercerization, use of compatibilizers, and silane treatment that are employed to enhance the interfacial adhesion which eventually leads to an improvement of strength in tension, stiffness, flexural strength, interfacial shear strength and so forth.

This chapter reports on the lifecycle assessment of the thermoplastic and thermosetting polymers composites reinforced with bamboo fibers. Several research works have reported that the bamboo reinforced polymers composites are biodegradable with environmental friendliness characteristic. Several chemical surface functionalization techniques have enhanced the properties of bamboo reinforced polymer composites.

The plant fiber-reinforced polymer composites have been utilized broadly in various engineering fields in recent times, because of its comparative benefits such as sustainability and recyclability. They have shown interest in different fields of engineering, as it is the capability to provide lower weight materials against metallic and synthetic materials. In recent years, both synthetic and metallic materials are presented replaced with plant reinforced polymer composites in many automobile components manufacturing industries. Among the different types of natural fibers, bamboo is one of the most fast-growing renewable resources and possesses huge potential to utilized as feedstock material to the biorefinery. In this present investigation, a new wind turbine blades are fabricated from bamboo fiber reinforced polymer composites to improve the annual generation of electricity. Both structural and aerodynamic factors are examined as design parameters in the optimization process. The design of airfoil also employed in optimization procedures to enhance structural and aerodynamic characteristics from airfoil theory. Blade element momentum theory is applied to determine aerodynamic characteristics and classical laminate theory is used to calculate mass per unit length and stiffness of the section. A techno-economic model also developed and showed that there is a decrement in the cost of blade material. The results also depict that the structural, aerodynamic, and techno-economic performance of the newly developed wind turbine blade is enhanced as compared with conventional plastic.

Bamboo is a renewable, eco-friendly, green material that grows perennially all over the world. Being a material of low cost, lightweight, and high strength to weight ratio compared to steel, bamboo caught great attention of the researchers to use it as a sustainable reinforcement in concrete. The use of bamboo in construction had started in ancient times. However, the practice of using bamboo as a reinforcement in concrete is still at its nascent age. This chapter addresses the assessment of bamboo reinforced concrete composite in infrastructural performance as a substitute for steel-reinforced concrete. Bamboo/bamboo fiber reinforced concrete beams and slabs have shown promising results to be used as the infrastructural components. It is evident from the studies that the bamboo has superior mechanical properties. However, still some issues need to be resolved such as durability, interface bonding in concrete, and stiffness. Further in-depth research work is required to establish the usability of bamboo as reinforcement in concrete infrastructure.