Strength and behaviour of bamboo reinforced concrete wall panels under two way in-plane action

An experimental investigation has been carried out on the use of an environmentally sustainable material, bamboo, in the construction of precast concrete structural wall panels. The strength and behaviour of three prototype bamboo reinforced concrete wall panel specimens under two-way in-plane action was studied. The specimens with varying aspect ratio and thinness ratio were tested to fail under a uniformly distributed in-plane load applied at an eccentricity of t/6. The aspect ratio of the specimens considered includes 1.667, 1.818 and 2 and the thinness ratio includes 12.5, 13.75 and 15. The influence of aspect ratio and thinness ratio of bamboo reinforced concrete wall panels, on its strength and behaviour was discussed. Varnished and sand blasted bamboo splints of 20 mm width and thickness varying from 8 to 15 mm were used as reinforcement in concrete. Based on the study, an empirical equation was developed considering the geometrical parameters of bamboo reinforced concrete wall panels for predicting its ultimate strength under two way in-plane action.