Identification of Rattan Cane in Structural Applications

In the context of producing environment-friendly materials while opposing global warming, developing and utilization of natural material such as bamboo and rattan cane for engineering applications have become the prime need of the study. In comparison to bamboo, cane wood is ductile in nature. This property carried the attention in the preparation of green material for the development of mechanical components used in dynamic loading conditions. Although limited literature is available on cane material, a comprehensive study on strength properties is required. Initiation has been done in attempting cane as load-bearing member. A comparative study on the strength properties of bamboo and cane wood is presented in the paper. It is identified that treated cane wood shows the high bending strength properties than bamboo. The results encouraged the authors to identify stiffness parameters under lateral loading conditions generally observed in the case of leaf springs. At the loads of dynamically varying, fundamental frequencies of leaf springs play a critical role in the performance of a system. Hence, the fundamental frequency of the cane sample is calculated for various support conditions using analytical expressions of transverse vibrations. These critical frequencies are validated using gyro sensors arranged at the end of the cane bar. Conclusions are drawn from the study that the cane material is suitable for light-weight dynamic load applications. Further, the practice can be extended to heavy components introducing cane fiber composites.