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The mechanical properties of bamboo and vascular bundles

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Abstract

Bamboo is a typical natural fiber-reinforced composite material with superior mechanical properties. As the reinforce phase in bamboo composite, the vascular bundles were extracted from different height locations of a Moso bamboo with an alkali treatment method, and the mechanical properties were investigated via the tensile test. It is found that both the longitudinal Young’s modulus and strength of the vascular bundles are linearly increased from the inner to outer side. To study the variation of mechanical properties of bamboo culm along the radial direction, thin bamboo slices were also tested. Using a modified rule of mixtures, the longitudinal Young’s modulus of bamboo slices are analyzed and excellent agreement can be found between experimental and theoretical results, which indicates that the longitudinal Young’s modulus of bamboo culm is cubically increased in the radial direction.

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Acknowledgments

The supports from National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant Nos. 11025209, 10972173, 11072184, and 11021202) are appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration, School of Aerospace, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Shaanxi, 710049, People’s Republic of China

    Hongbo Li & Shengping Shen

  2. College of Engineering, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu, Shanxi, 030801, People’s Republic of China

    Hongbo Li

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  1. Hongbo Li
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  2. Shengping Shen
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Correspondence to Shengping Shen.

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Li, H., Shen, S. The mechanical properties of bamboo and vascular bundles. Journal of Materials Research 26, 2749–2756 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2011.314

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