Experimental investigation on the physical and mechanical properties of P. edulis bamboo and their correlations

Due to the complexity of the physical and mechanical properties of P. edulis (moso) bamboo, existing research on the material properties of moso bamboo is scattered and nonsystematic. Taking into consideration the factor of bamboo nodes, in this work, experiments on the mechanical properties of moso bamboo under compression parallel to the grain (UC), shear parallel to the grain (US), tensile parallel to the grain (UT), compression perpendicular to the grain (CC) and tensile perpendicular to the grain (CT) were conducted in a profound and systematic way. The failure characteristics, typical values of the physical and mechanical properties and probability distribution model were investigated, and the distribution laws of the physical and mechanical properties along the height growth direction as well as the correlations between those properties were analyzed. The formulas of predicting the corresponding physical and mechanical properties at other heights based on the physical and mechanical properties of moso bamboo at a certain height were derived and established, and the calculation formulas of predicting other mechanical properties based on compression strength parallel to the grain were further derived. The findings prove that the normal distribution, lognormal distribution and 2-P-Weibull distribution have a good fit with the distribution of the physical and mechanical properties of bamboo materials, and the physical and mechanical properties of bamboo are highly correlated with the height of moso bamboo. The performance prediction formula has high accuracy and can serve as a reference for the evaluation of the mechanical performance of moso bamboo materials.