Construction and Building Materials 31 (2012) 52–57

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Construction and Building Materials

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Experiments with rings to determine the anisotropic elastic constants of bamboo

José Jaime García a,⇑, Christian Rangel a, Khosrow Ghavami b
a
Escuela de Ingeniería Civil y Geomática, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia
b
Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Different species of bamboo are extensively used to build houses and temporary structures in developing
Received 7 September 2010 countries. Few studies have been carried out to establish the elastic constants along the transverse axes
Received in revised form 5 December 2011 which are the weakest directions, making them prone to failure. This is mainly due to the difficulty to cut
Accepted 23 December 2011
specimens long enough to accomplish correct circumferential or radial uniaxial tests. A simple test pro-
Available online 20 January 2012
tocol is proposed in this study to determine the radial-circumferential Poisson’s ratio, the circumferential
Young’s modulus and the circumferential-axial shear modulus of bamboo using ring specimens. The pro-
Keywords:
posed protocol was used to determine the elastic properties of Guadua angustifolia, which is a species fre-
Bamboo Guadua angustifolia
Bamboo anisotropy
quently used in structural applications in South America. The radial-circumferential Poisson’s ratios were
Elastic constants equal to 0.43, 0.14 and 0.12 for the bottom, middle and top portions of the culm, respectively; the circum-
Mechanical properties ferential Young’s modulus was equal to 398 MPa; and the circumferential-axial shear modulus was equal
to 581 MPa. These values are within the range reported for different species of bamboo and structural
timber. These values could be used to accomplish reliable finite element analyses of joints of bamboo
structures. The proposed protocol may be used to determine the anisotropic elastic constants of other
species of bamboo.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Due to its excellent physical and mechanical properties, bam-
boo is extensively used in the construction of rural houses and
other temporary structures such as scaffolding. It is a plant of rapid
growth hence its use will contribute to the reduction of the use of
non-renewable and polluting materials such as steel and concrete
[1]. Considering these characteristics, bamboo is one of the materi-
als with a high potential to contribute in solving the housing deficit
in developing countries [2], where more than 30% of the population
live in unhealthy conditions. In addition, the increased applications
of bamboo in civil construction will reduce the global warming
caused by the indiscriminate use of industrialized materials. Sev-
eral studies have been carried out to establish the physical and
mechanical properties of this material with the objective of opti-
mizing its use in structural applications [3–9].
Bamboo is an anisotropic and heterogeneous material due to
the structure composed of a lignin matrix reinforced with fibers
aligned in the longitudinal direction of the culm. These fibers pro-
vide higher stiffness and strength along the axial direction com-
pared to those along the transverse axes [3,4]. From the
mechanical point of view, the description of bamboo anisotropy
⇑ Corresponding author. Address: Calle 13, Carrera 100, Edificio 350, Universidad
del Valle, Cali, Colombia. Tel.: +572 339 2420; fax: +572 339 2086.
E-mail address: josejgar@gmail.com (J.J. García).
requires knowledge of all elastic constants along the principal axes.
These parameters can then be used in the analysis of reliable
numerical simulations of the stress field in the material under
multi-axial loading, as found in joints, which are generally the
weakest part of a structure, in particular under seismic loading.
After the generation of reliable experimental results, numerical
analyses using finite element models can, in many cases, substitute
time consuming and expensive experimental tests.
Several experimental studies have been performed to deter-
mine the elastic properties associated with the longitudinal direc-
tion of bamboo [5–8]. There are also norms to execute these
experiments [10,11]. Few studies have been aimed at finding the
circumferential Young’s modulus under indirect loading such as
diametric compression of rings [12]. Torsion tests with culms were
also carried out to determine the shear modulus of bamboo Metake
and bamboo Moso [13]. In those later studies only one specimen for
each species was tested due to the experimental difficulties associ-
ated with the protocol. To the best of our knowledge, studies have
not been performed to determine the radial-circumferential
Poisson’s ratio of the material. One possible explanation for this
lack of studies could be the difficulties to cut specimens of the
appropriate length along the radial and circumferential axes, con-
sidering the relatively small thickness of the culm.
To improve the anisotropic characterization of bamboo, a sim-
ple test specimen and test procedure, henceforth called protocol,
is proposed to determine the radial-circumferential Poisson’s ratio

0950-0618/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2011.12.089
 J.J. García et al. / Construction and Building Materials 31 (2012) 52–57 53

using rings. The circumferential Young’s modulus as well as the

circumferential-axial shear modulus can also be determined in
conjunction with the analyses of finite element models. This proto-
col was applied to specimens of the species Guadua angustifolia, na-
tive to the northern region of South America and frequently used in
the construction of rural housing.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Description of proposed tests

Considering that the main anisotropy of bamboo is the high strength and stiff-
ness along the axial direction compared to those along the circumferential and ra-
dial axes, the transversely isotropic model proposed by Torres et al. [12] was
adopted in this study. According to this model, the transverse plane, perpendicular
to the longitudinal axis of the culm, is considered to be isotropic and the constants
along the radial axis are assumed to be equal to those along the circumferential
direction. In the cylindrical coordinate system (Fig. 1), axes 1, 2 and 3 are the radial,
circumferential and axial directions, respectively. According to the transversely iso-
tropic model, the five independent elastic constants [14] are the Young’s moduli in
the transverse plane (E2) and the axial direction (E3), the Poisson’s ratio in the trans-
verse plane (radial-circumferential or out-of-plane Poisson’s ratio, m12), the circum-
ferential-axial Poisson’s ratio (m23) and the circumferential-axial shear modulus
(G23). For both the stress and strain components, the convention of linear elasticity
is observed. Therefore, r11, r22 and r33 are the normal components along the radial,
circumferential and axial directions, respectively. The same rule applies for the
strain components as e11, e22 and e33.
The m12 relation can be obtained by loading a specimen under circumferential
uniaxial tension and measuring the circumferential (e22) and radial (e11) strains.
By definition, m12 is equal to the negative ratio of radial to circumferential strain.
Due to the cylindrical shape and the relatively small thickness of the culm, it is
not possible to obtain specimens long enough for appropriate uniaxial tests.
An approximation to the uniaxial loading case in the circumferential direction
was accomplished at some locations of a bamboo ring when half of it was sand-
wiched between rigid steel plates firmly supported to a fixed base (Figs. 1 and 2).
Then, an axial load P was applied near the end of the free half ring resulting in a ra-
dial bending moment which is equal to PR in the section of the ring near the support
plates. As a result, the volume elements located at the top and bottom free surfaces
Fig. 2. (a) Axial loading applied to the ring to produce a radial bending moment
(surfaces 3, i.e. perpendicular to axis 3) near the support were under tension and
near the support, (b) detail of the strain gauges used to measure radial and
compression, respectively, in the circumferential direction. The stress field at these
circumferential strains.
locations was approximately uniaxial since those surfaces were friction-free and
the thickness of the specimen was relatively small. This implies that the compo-
nents of the stress tensor different to the normal circumferential were approxi- ness of the ring mainly depends on the circumferential modulus E2 and, to a lesser
mately equal to zero. Consequently, the measurements of the radial and extent, on the shear modulus G23. This implies that both elastic constants cannot be
circumferential strains near the support allowed determining the radial-circumfer- uniquely determined from this test.
ential Poisson’s ratio. In addition, in this experiment a the sections of the ring were To obtain a unique determination of E2 and G23, an experiment b was devised in
under bending and torsion, except for the sections near the support and the section which G23 had a bigger influence on the stiffness, which occurs when each section of
where the load was applied which were under bending only (Fig. 1). Thus, the stiff- the ring is under torsion. To achieve this state, a small part of the ring was removed

Fig. 1. Radial (1) circumferential (2) and axial (3) coordinates used in the study and a schematic representation of the stress field near the support for experiment a.
54 J.J. García et al. / Construction and Building Materials 31 (2012) 52–57
by cutting out longitudinally. Next, a portion of the remaining ring was sandwiched
between steel plates that were fixed to the support of the testing machine. Then, an
axial load P was applied to the specimen by using steel bars and bolts (Fig. 3) so that
the action line of the load coincided with the axis of the ring. In this way, each sec-
tion of the ring was under a torsion moment equal to PR and a shear force equal to P.
The circumferential Young’s modulus E2 and the circumferential-axial shear modu-
lus G23 can now be found by considering the experimental stiffness from the torsion
test, denoted as experiment b, in conjunction with the stiffness from experiment a.
2.2. Description of the finite element model
In this study the bamboo culm was assumed to be cylindrical with variations of
wall thickness and diameter measured in four points diagonally. In experiment a
there may be deviations of the stress field at the free surfaces near the support with
respect to the uniaxial case. Therefore, the radial-circumferential Poisson’s ratio cal-
culated from the radial and circumferential strains from the electrical strain gauges
(denoted as the apparent Poisson’s ratio) could not be equal to Poisson’s ratio m12 of
the material. With the objective of verifying and correcting the differences between
the apparent and material Poisson’s ratios, finite element models were developed
using the program ABAQUS 6.9.1 (Dassault Systemes, France).
Models were also developed to obtain the elastic constant E2 and G23 by fitting
the stiffness of experiments a and b. Variations of wall thickness and diameter were
included in the model of each ring according to four measurements taken at sec-
tions located at 90o. For each model, the elastic constants were manually adjusted
until the numerical stiffness for each experiment was within 0.5% of the respective
experimental stiffness. These models were also used to determine the variations of
stiffness in experiments a and b with changes of each elastic constant to half and
twice the baseline value. The baseline properties for m12, E2 and G23 were those val-
ues obtained in this study. The constants m32 = 0.3 and E3 = 14700 MPa were chosen
Fig. 3. (a) Photograph and (b) schematic representation of the configuration used to
obtain torsion without bending in experiment b.
from Ghavami and Marinho [5]. The meshes that were chosen after a convergence
analysis contained variable number (range 6000–7800) of C3D8I hexahedral
elements.
2.3. Experimental methods
The test rings of bamboo species G. angustifolia were obtained from culms be-
tween three and five years of age and about 12 m in length, grown in the Eje Cafe-
tero (Colombia, South America) at an altitude of 1500 m. Culms were supplied and
treated by Ecobamboo Ltda. (Candelaria, Colombia). They were selected and marked
according to the norm ISO 22157-1:2004 [10]. They were cut and left upright in the
bamboo forest during two weeks to drain and ferment the starch and sugar present
in the culms. After having been transported to the treatment plant, the culms were
immersed in a 6% boric salt solution during five days, after which they were kept
upright for drying in the open air for 20 days. Finally, they were stacked horizon-
tally in a warehouse during 45 days and dried with hot air twice daily for 2 h at
12 h intervals.
The culms were cut in three sections of 4 m each in order to obtain the ring
specimens from the bottom, middle and top locations of the plant. Diameter, thick-
ness, height and humidity content of each ring were measured according to norm
ISO 22157-1 [11]. To measure strains for the determination of Poisson’s ratio, five
ring specimens from each bottom, middle and top part were prepared. The relation
of height (h) and thickness (t) of the specimens was about 1.2 (h/t  1.2). The elastic
constants E2 and G23 were established by preparing 18 specimens (six for bottom,
middle and top locations). The ratio between height and thickness was in the range
of 2.5–3 to offer a good precision with the 669-N load cell (±0.33 N) used in the
experimental set up (LC703-150, Omega Engineering, Inc., USA). A summary of
the thickness and diameter of the specimens is presented in Table 1.
Each specimen was tested in a dynamic testing machine [15] where a LVDT
LD610-15 (Omega Engineering, Inc., USA) (precision ± 0.045 mm) was used to deter-
mine displacement. Strains were measured using biaxial electrical resistant strain
gauges BF350-2BB (Shenzhen Exact Sensor Instrument, China) aligned in the radial
and circumferential directions (Fig. 2b) that were bonded at distances between 3 and
7 mm from the support. Boards OM2-162 (Omega Engineering, Inc., USA) were uti-
lized to filter and amplify the signals. An acquisition card PMD-1208 LS (Measure-
ment Computing Corporation, USA) registered the signals at a frequency of 21 Hz.
The displacement control load was applied at a velocity of 1 mm/min according
to norm D 143 - 94 [16]. The applied load was held during 30 s and then reduced to
zero at a velocity of 1200 mm/min, which was repeated twice at intervals of two
minutes between cycles.
3. Results
The finite element simulation of experiment a showed that the
stress field at the free surfaces near the support was approximately
uniaxial since the normal stress in the circumferential direction
was substantially higher than the other components of the stress
tensor (Fig. 4a). In addition, the circumferential stress presented
a maximum value at the inner culm wall with a constant reduction
toward the external boundary.
A similar trend was observed for the circumferential strain,
(Fig. 4b) as well as small variations of the negative radial strain
and almost zero axial strain. The apparent Poisson’s ratio (equal
to the negative ratio between the radial and circumferential strains
at each point) showed variations of up to 9% in relation to Poisson’s
ratio of the material, i.e. the value that was prescribed for the
material in the finite element model (Fig. 4c). The average apparent
Poisson’s ratio was within 2% of Poisson’s ratio of the material for
all the cases studied.
Simulations of experiments a and b presented variations of stiff-
ness lower than 6% with changes of each of the elastic constants E3,
m23, m12 to half and twice the baseline values (Figs. 5 and 6). The
variations of each constant E2 and G23 to half and twice the base-
line values caused substantial changes of stiffness in the simula-
tion of both experiments, with the influence of E2 higher for
experiment a (Fig. 6a), and the influence of G23 higher for experi-
ment b (Fig. 6b).
A linear trend was obtained for the force–deflection curves
(R2 > 0.98) as well as an overall consistent behavior among the
three cycles of loading (Fig. 7), except for the small residual dis-
placement after the first cycle. In all cases, the circumferential
 J.J. García et al. / Construction and Building Materials 31 (2012) 52–57 55

Table 1
Summary of culm wall thickness t and diameter D of all specimens.

Position n Diameter D (mm) Thickness t (mm)

a
Average SD Range Average SDa Range
Bottom 11 117.89 5.18 109.86–123.12 14.04 3.19 11.36–19.05
Middle 11 106.97 8.38 100.05–119.68 10.21 1.26 9.38–12.09
Top 11 97.72 12.49 80.03–117.31 9.04 1.43 7.24–10.73
Global 33 107.53 12.10 80.03–123.12 11.10 2.98 7.24–19.05
a
SD: Standard deviation.

The average values of the constants E2 and G23 were 398 (SD = 193)
MPa and 581 (SD = 157) MPa, respectively (Fig. 9). No difference
in relation to the position along the culm was observed for E2
and G23. The humidity content of the samples was in the range of
13–17%.

4. Discussion

The developed tests were used to measure the radial-

Fig. 4. Typical curves obtained with the finite element model showing (a) stress
components, (b) strains and (c) the apparent (out-of-plane) Poisson’s ratios.
strain was higher than the radial and both of them were propor-
tional to the applied load.
The experimental Poisson’s ratio of G. angustifolia decreases
with the height along the culm (Fig. 8). The value at the bottom
portion (0.43) was significantly higher (p < 0.05, t student test)
than those at the middle (0.14) and top (0.12) portions of the culm.
circumferential Poisson’s ratio of G. angustifolia and the elastic con-
stants E2 and G23 by using a relatively simple experimental proto-
col. In this way, we solved the problem of obtaining specimens
long enough for valid uniaxial tests in the circumferential or radial
directions, which is not possible due to the relatively small thick-
ness and cylindrical form of the culm. Given the cylindrical shape
of the specimens, this test is also appropriate to determine elastic
constants of other species of bamboo. The rings for the tests can be
cut from the culm without any damage, in contrast to other inves-
tigations with specimens of small dimensions [17].
Finite element simulation of experiment a allowed for verifica-
tion that the stress distribution at the top and bottom surfaces of
the ring near the support was approximately uniaxial. The higher
value of the circumferential strain at the inner boundary when
compared to the outer one could be related to the smaller length
of the inner circumference. Since infinitesimal strain is equal to
the ratio of length change over initial length, its value is higher
at the inner radius. Consequently, according to Hooke’s law, the
circumferential stress was also higher at the inner boundary. This
is similar to the stress distribution in curved beams where a higher
gradient toward the center of curvature occurs [18]. Numerical
simulations made it possible to verify that the apparent Poisson’s
ratio, calculated as the negative ratio of radial to circumferential
strain, was almost equal to Poisson’s ratio of the material, in spite
of the small variations in radius. The electrical strain gauge gave an
average value over the area where it was bonded; consequently,
the apparent value was very similar to the material value. Finite
element simulations have also shown the small influence of the
constants E3, m23, m12 in the stiffness of experiments a and b and
high contribution of the constants E2 and G23. This implies that
the determination of E2 and G23 is valid although the constants
E3 and m23 were taken from other studies [5].
To the best of our knowledge no study is available concerning
the radial-circumferential Poisson’s ratio for bamboo that can be
used as a reference for the values obtained in this paper. A compar-
ison with wood indicates that the obtained Poisson’s ratios (0.43,
0.14 and 0.12, for the bottom, middle and upper parts of the culm
respectively) are within the range of ratios reported for structural
timber [19]. The average obtained circumferential Young’s modu-
lus (E2 = 398 MPa) is within 316 MPa and 476 MPa found by Torres
et al. [12] using diametric compression tests and a bi-linear
approximation for the slope-deflection curves. The average circum-
ferential-axial shear modulus (581 MPa) is lower than those ob-
tained by Torres [13] for bamboo Metake (910 MPa) and bamboo
Moso (665 MPa) using one specimen under torsion for each species.
56 J.J. García et al. / Construction and Building Materials 31 (2012) 52–57

Fig. 5. Typical finite element mesh and vertical displacement contours obtained in the finite element simulation of experiment a.

Fig. 7. Typical force–deflection curves obtained in the three cycles of loading for
experiment a.

Fig. 6. Charts showing typical variations of the normalized stiffness with changes of
each of the material constants to half and twice the baseline values, for (a)
experiment a and (b) experiment b. Stiffness was normalized with respect to the
value obtained with the baseline material properties.

The ratio between the circumferential Young’s modulus E2 and

the axial Young’s modulus E3 is equal to 0.027, which is higher than Fig. 8. Radial-circumferential (out-of-plane) Poisson’s ratios obtained from
the lower value of the ratios (0.015–0.086) reported for hard wood experiments.
[19]. The ratio between G23 and E3 is equal to 0.040 which is also
close to the lower value (0.037–0.097) reported for hard wood
[19]. This suggests that G. angustifolia is less stiff in the transverse
plane compared to hard wood. Therefore, special attention has to
aligned along the axial direction, as a first approximation it was as-
be paid to avoid excessive deformation and failure when load is ap-
sumed that the radial modulus was equal to the circumferential.
plied in the radial direction.
The linear behavior of the force–deflection curves (R2 > 0.98) im-
One limitation of this study is the assumption that the material
plied that the rings were within the elastic limit of the material.
is transversely isotropic. However, since the fibers are highly
 J.J. García et al. / Construction and Building Materials 31 (2012) 52–57
Fig. 9. Elastic constants E2 and G23 obtained from experiments.
This is confirmed by the similarity observed in the three cycles of
loading. It has been shown that fiber density of bamboo increases
toward the external surface. This heterogeneity mainly influences
Young’s modulus in the axial direction. Hence, the elastic constants
obtained with the homogeneous model adopted in this study can
be considered as effective average properties throughout the thick-
ness. The investigation was carried out to analyze the experimental
tests with the application of an anisotropic finite element model.
There are several commercial and free domain finite element pro-
grams which could be used to complement experimental results to
determine anisotropic material properties of other species of
bamboo.
5. Conclusions
Over the years the research programs aimed to characterize the
mechanical behavior of bamboo were mainly concerned with
establishing the engineering properties along the longitudinal axis
of the culm and have not determined the elastic constants along
the transverse axes which are the weakest directions for failure.
The present paper described a simple protocol which made it pos-
sible to determine the radial-circumferential Poisson’s ratio, the
circumferential Young’s modulus and the circumferential-axial
shear modulus of bamboo G. angustifolia. The obtained radial-cir-
cumferential Poisson’s ratios were equal to 0.43, 0.14 and 0.12
for the bottom, middle and top portions of the culm, respectively;
the circumferential Young’s modulus was equal to 398 MPa; and
the circumferential-axial shear modulus was equal to 581 MPa.
These properties are within the range of values reported for differ-
ent species of bamboo and wood. These constants have been in-
57
cluded in anisotropic finite element models which are used for
the structural analysis of G. angustifolia elements and joints. The
proposed procedure can be extended to determine the anisotropic
elastic constants of other species of bamboo.
Acknowledgments
The authors greatly appreciate the support given by Colciencias
(contrato 509 2008) and Universidad del Valle to undertake this
project. Thanks also to CAPES and CNPq of Brazil.
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