Experimental investigation of bending strength of oxytenanthera abyssinica and yushania alpina bamboos

Abstract

Bamboo has a long and well-established in many structure such as tradition building material, furniture and bicycle structure throughout the world. To use bamboo for industrial use and product fabrication, its bending strength is determinant mechanical property. The bending strength of these two species of bamboo was not studied sufficiently in Ethiopia. This research is mainly focused on the bending strength of two species of bamboo which is found abundantly in Ethiopian. Highland bamboos which are hollow and lowland bamboos are solid having scientific name of Yushania Alpine and Oxytenantheria Abyssinica respectively. Bending strength of bamboo for bending loading was experimentally tested and characterized with respect to its age and species typeSamples were prepared according to ISO standards and experiments were conducted on universal testing machine. The test results show that as the age of bamboo increased the bending strength of both Yushania alpine and Oxytenantheria abyssinica species bamboo were increased. Among the two species, Oxytenanthera abyssinica has a better bending strength compared to Yushania alpine. The bending strength of Oxytenanthera abyssinica were found 1.6, 2.9 and 2.0 times stronger than the Yushania alpine at year two, three and four respectively.