Bamboo Engineering: Cool Roofs and Other Applications

Abstract:

Overpopulation, exploitation of resources and rapid development has destroyed the

environment. It is essential for us to take radical steps in order to sustain the environment and
go towards sustainable solutions. In the field of construction, much of the pollution can be
avoided if green-building techniques are employed, as they pose the least threat to the
environment with their minimal carbon footprint. The present paper discusses bamboo
reinforced concrete for construction of roofs in low-income tropical areas. The bamboo
concrete composite or "Bambete" constitutes of bamboo splits mixed in a concrete mix in form
of reinforcements. A comparative study of other possible materials is also conducted. Bamboo
is considered a cool technology, because of its high resistance to thermal conductance, unlike
steel. A proposed design will not only be cheap, easy to manufacture, durable but will also
mitigate the heat island effect reducing the use of air conditioning and other cooling methods.
Considering places in South Asia, where bamboo is abundant this solution can be a vital aspect
of sustainability too.

Keywords: Green-building, bamboo, steel, composites, heat

Introduction:

It is no hidden fact that the explosion of population, the extinction of resources and
rapid development is destroying the environment. Every sector of human development is
contributing to the destruction of our eco-system. It is essential for us to take radical steps in
order to sustain the environment and go towards sustainable solutions. According to the IPCC
report 2010, which mentions that if we make energy-efficient buildings 30 percent of the
greenhouse can be reduced in the building sector? This is the sector that offers the highest
global potential by 2020. Using "Green building" technologies we can create a sustainable
model for this sector that will also be easy to manufacture and cheaper than the counterparts.
Employing natural materials that are easily found in the abundant ecosystem will cut cost and
energy to manufacture non-renewable substances and reduce pollution. From a pool of various
building materials like timber, bamboo, hemp we will be employing bamboo for the specific
study.

According to Ghavami (2005), bamboo is a great alternative that can be easily produced
and it has mechanical properties matching that of steel. Bamboo is essentially a very
lightweight fibrous material that is also dubbed as a "miracle plant" by many because it can
easily be grown throughout the year with high yields. It can reach a value of 370 MPa in tensile
strength making it closer to steel that has a tensile strength ranging between 400 - 600 MPa.
The best property of bamboo is the lightweight that helps it achieve a higher tensile strength to
specific weight.
 According to (Sudhakar et al., 2007; Korde et al., 2007 and Kandya et al., 2009),
considering the cost and energy expelled to produce steel is far greater than using naturally
available fibers. The energy to produce 1-meter cube per unit stress for bamboo is 50 times less
than that of steel. So it is also a sustainable building material for our future requirements. For
building bamboo can be used as a reinforcement substance in forms of beams and columns in
concrete mix or any other mix for that matter. Also, according to Akbari et al. (1997) the heat
gain pattern of the proposed design will help in saving a lot of energy wasted in cooling and air-
conditioning. This paper demonstrates the use of bamboo in green building, especially for cool
roofs.

General Material Requirement for green building

According to Akbari et al. (1997), cool roofs have a tendency to reduce energy demands
in regions with extensively hot summers. Also as the roof is an integral part of a building it must
qualify for the same. It is known that for structures high tensile strength and ruggedness to the
environment is very essential. So, the green cool roof must possess certain characteristics
presented below:

• It should have higher strength

• High relative thermal insulation features
• Should be cheap and easily available
• Low carbon footprint
• High durability against all weathers

We will discuss bamboo as a possible substitute for steel in steel reinforced concrete
structures. Bamboo has a good tensile strength reaching to 370 MPa. It is very light when
compared to steel or any other metal as it has a 50 times greater unit meter cube per unit
stress bearing capacity than steel or strength to weight ratio. A detailed analysis is done for its
use in a heat island and as a potential candidate for structural material for the future.

Material Selection

Considering all the requirements of green building in the previous part, selection can
easily be made. Bamboo is a very high-value plant that possesses 370 MPa of tensile strength
that can readily be grown (Ghavami, 2005). It possesses 50 times higher strength to weight
ratio than steel. Although there are several limitations of the material as it can absorb water
and lose properties (Sudhakar et al., 2007). If we use bamboo concrete composites we can
easily use it as a durable material that has high insulation and hence is able to keep the
temperatures normal (Anurag Kandya 2010). We will be analyzing bamboo concrete with steel
concrete composites.

Initially, the test is compared with studies carried out by Ogunbiyi et al. (2015) for
comparison of steel bars and bamboo sticks. The experiments were carried out as universal
Tensile tests on a tensile testing machine on standard ASTM parameters. Different sizes of the
specimen were used for high yield steel, mild steel, and bamboo Culm cuts. The tables display
the results of the experiments.
Table 1 Tensile test results for Steel bars

High yield steel Reinforcement bar Mild Steel Reinforcement bar

Size of Max
Tensile Breaking Max Tensile Breaking
test Tensile
Strength Elongation Tensile Strength Elongation
specimen force (KN)
(N/mm²) (%) force (KN) (N/mm²) (%)
(cm)
1 cm 35.90 457.13 19.25 22.82 290.49 51.61
2 cm 224.12 713.40 30.72 117.17 372.98 23.68
2.5 cm 389.21 792.90 26.11 220.46 701.74 29.65

Table 2 Tensile test results for bamboo

Bamboo
Size of test specimen Max Tensile force Tensile Strength Breaking Elongation
(cm) (KN) (N/mm²) (%)
1 cm 3.16 31.55 0.00
2 cm 12.53 62.66 12.10
2.5 cm 18.92 94.60 10.91

The results clearly demonstrate the bamboo is brittle in terms of elongation that it can
sustain if it is used in smaller sized culms. It can, however, sustain a 12% elongation in 2cm by 1
cm specimen. This concludes that bamboo has inferior tensile properties so it cannot be used as
the main structural material. It won't be able to sustain high loads that are generally bourn by
steel members in skyscrapers and other building. Therefore it is essential to use bamboo with
another mixture in form of a composite and use it for roofs, hedges etc. Alone it cannot
measure the superior properties of steel bars. Also, like steel, it is bad against the tropical
environment and so it is important to coat it with something as it will lose all its mechanical
advantage in the rain.

The test runs on bamboo concrete composites by (Ahmad, S., Raza, A. and Gupta, H.,
2014) give some very helpful results. Although still, the bamboos will not be able to compete
with the steel reinforced structures in main members of a building they can easily be used for
roofs. The bamboo sticks are treated in coal tar to protect them from water and humidity and
singly and doubly reinforced beams are tested. The results of 50 days dry beams are shown in
the table below.
Table 3 Beam test by Ahmed S. (2014)

Ult. Load Flexural Strength Max Deflection

Beam Types
(KN) (MPa) (x 10 -2 mm)
Concrete 3 48 56
Singly reinforced 3.5 56 54
Doubly reinforced 5 80 98
 It is clearly seen that doubly reinforced bamboo concrete beam can bear twice the load
of a simple concrete beam. The flexural strength is also twice, and so low cost buildings can
easily use bamboo in their structures. It is also seen that modulus of elasticity and ultimate load
capacity increases with the addition of bamboo fibers.

The experiment carried out by (Anurag K. 2010) on the investigation of bamboo

composite for thermal properties is discussed. The study uses different specimens like bamboo,
bamboo-concrete composite or "bamcrete" and normal bricks. The results are shown in the
graphs below.

Figure 1 Ambient temperature vs bamboo cubical temperature at different times

Figure 2 Ambient temperature vs bambete cubical temperature at different times

 Figure 3 Ambient temperature vs brick cubical temperature at different times

The result shows some very favorable results for our proposed design of the cool roof.
We can clearly see that bamboo cubical keep the temperature to a minimum difference i.e. its
temperature remains in 2-degree variation to the ambient temperature most of the time. This
proves that bamboo has better insulation properties than concrete. The test also shows us how
a brick house absorbs a lot of heat and even retains it longer. This is really bad in hot and humid
weathers when the temperatures shoot up to 45-degree centigrade at peak sun hours, making
it unbearable for living human beings. The bambete cubical also losses heat faster than brick
cubical. The results also find that 73% of the time temperature of brick cubical was more than
that of bambete cubical. Proving our hypothesis for using bambete for cool roof applications.

Process of Manufacturing

There are several types of bamboo composites that have been created over the years.
All of these have different mechanical properties and uses in the building industry. All of these
have different manufacturing processes. Layered laminate bamboo composite proposed by
Verma (2013), where laminate sheets of Dry bamboo culms of a specific breed were processed.
They were turned into thin laminas that were then cold pressed with the use of epoxy resin.
This produced LLBCs (4 layered laminated bamboo epoxy composite). Bamboo-based polymer
composites proposed by (Kazuya Okubo, 2004). The bamboo fiber reinforced composite (BFRC)
is made by impregnating the bamboo fibers in resin. The fibers are crossed over to increase
strength and rigidity. Other methods introduced by different authors such as the bamboo
fiberglass composite by (Fuentes, C.A, 2015) use similar techniques for manufacturing.

Our proposed design is much crude in nature that can be employed by anyone. The
Simple Bambete structure as proposed by (Anurag K. 2010) will use bamboo culms directly. The
raw materials for the composite will be species Dendrocalamus Strictus. The thickness of the
wall is maintained at 1 inch for the experiments. This could be changed as per requirements.
The process of material is that bamboo half split panel is mixed with cement mortar in 1:6
ratios. This lets the panels be equally covered and keeps the reinforcements well inside the
walls. That is then let to be cool like a normal concrete mix. This is a fairly simple method to
produce roofs that can be done by any worker, without any additional skill making it the
cheapest solution for poor households that make up the largest portion of South Asia.

Further Applications and improvements

Bamboo has been used over the years for many applications like baskets, bridges,
fences, shades, hats, umbrellas. These bambete roofs can be used for penthouses on top of
every building that could provide additional living space in urban areas. Furthermore, these
bamboo splits can be incorporated into a mix of sand and concrete. As the cost of concrete is
going up, readily available sand can be mixed in small proportions of concrete to be used for
the composites. This will also save money and give almost similar results to that of bambete.

Conclusion

When we use bamboo composites for the buildings only as a secondary structure like roofs.
This due to the fact that bamboo is far inferior in properties when compared to steel bars.
Although we achieve some similar mechanical properties of that of steel in strength to weight
ratios etc. This is why bamboo is used as a common material in south Asia and Africa for
construction of huts, chairs, and baskets. When bamboo is used in a composite its utility is far
greater, as it can be used for low cost roofs, shades, and construction material. We can also see
that bamboos are really good in terms of thermal insulation and can substantially bring the
temperatures of the interiors down. Because of its cheap and easy availability it can be a good
alternative as a composite reinforcement material to steel reinforcements. In South Asia where
bamboo is abundant and easily available, its use can bring revolutionary changes in the
economy and environment. This will reduce the pollution level in the building sector and reduce
the use of air conditioning in hot and humid conditions.

References

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