Structural behaviour benefits of a hybrid steel-bamboo emergency house

Abstract

According to the need of emergency houses all around the world, the development of a prototype (low cost and high strength structure) which could be placed anywhere becomes essential. This placement could be in susceptible areas to earthquakes, floods or armed conflicts. It has been studied the behaviour of a steel-bamboo hybrid structure compared with a steel-aluminium hybrid one (in terms of strength). Finite elements software has been used to simulate both models. It has been obtained the maximum quantity of bamboo which can be placed in the prototype achieving the optimum design. As far as strength is concerned, steel-aluminium is better than steel-bamboo; even though, it exists minimum difference (9.16%), which is despicable considering the advantages of bamboo. When using bamboo as alternative material, displacement varies because of the density of the elements. The structural model becomes lighter and, according to that, it supposes an increase in the displacement (about 0.4 mm).