Compressive and tensile strength of bamboo species

Abstract

Asia is the continent with the largest bamboo population int the world, so bamboo is a popular construction material in Asian countries such as China, India, and also Indonesia. There are 145 species of bamboo species that grow in Indonesia, and in the eastern region of Sumatera Utara (Deli Serdang, Langkat, and Sedang Bedagai district), 13 species can be found. But in this region, the use of bamboo in construction is limited, due to lack of knowledge about the strength of local bamboo. This study is conducted to determine the mechanical properties, namely the compressive and tensile strength of bamboo species that grow in the region. The results obtained are the preliminary data to conduct further studies to utilize bamboo in this region as a construction material. To obtain the compressive and tensile strength, compression and tension test are carried out based on ISO 22157 standard and performed on node and internode sections of bamboo samples. The result of this study shows that for a compression test, the compressive strength for node and internode samples did not show significant differences. But in the tension test, the internode tensile strength significantly higher than the node.