Composite Structures 294 (2022) 115777

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Composite Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruct

Interlaminar fracture property of Moso bamboo strips influenced by fiber

distributions in bamboo internode and node
Chengyang Liu a, Mingxi Liu a, Wen Liu a, *, Zhi Li b, c, *, Feng Xu d
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 10083, China
b
College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
c
Zhejiang University-University of Illinois Institute (ZJUI), Zhejiang University, Haining 314400, China
d
College of Civil Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Bamboo is widely used as sustainable bio-composite material in the construction of houses, pavilions, furniture,
Bamboo and bridges, etc. As a unidirectional fibrous composite, it is usually damaged due to the interlaminar crack,
Fracture energy which is directly related to the corresponding microstructure. In this study, the different fracture performances
Internode
between bamboo internode and bamboo node are researched, as well as the fiber distributions in these zones. For
Node
Fiber distribution
the internode specimens, the results show that specimens with higher fiber contents tend to exhibit higher
fracture energy than the case of lower fiber contents, so the fracture energy presents the functional gradient
characteristics with fiber content. It is mainly because that more longitudinal vascular bundles make the fracture
crack more tortuous and ultimately need more fracture energy. Furthermore, the node specimens have much-
strengthened fracture performance than internode specimens with the same fiber contents, due to the radial
fibers distributing in the bamboo node. The microscopic observation results indicate that the existence of radial
vascular bundles causes the fracture process to include multiple damage modes such as interface delamination,
vascular bundle pull-out, and crack deflection and finally play the effect of resisting crack propagation.

1. Introduction characteristic but also possesses functionally graded mechanical prop­

In the long natural evolution process of survival of the fittest, a wide
range of bio-composite materials with a specific structure to sustain
complex loading conditions has been developed [1]. They are the
boundless inspiration sources for bionic materials and structures. The
hidden keys of these bio-composite materials, such as bone, shell, wood,
bamboo, et al., are their hierarchical structures, spanning from the
nanoscale to the macroscale [2]. Among these materials, bamboo is one
of the most proficient candidates due to its classical hierarchical struc­
ture and outstanding mechanical properties [3,4]. Given its environ­
mentally friendly and energy-saving features, bamboo has recently
gathered increasing scientific and technological interest for its prom­
ising applications in the construction of houses, pavilions, furniture, and
bridges, etc. [5].
It is well known that bamboo is a unidirectional fiber-reinforced
composite where the fiber reinforcements, namely the vascular bun­
dles, distribute parallelly and more densely from the inside part to the
outside part. As a result, bamboo not only has an anisotropic
erties [6,7]. As seen in Fig. 1, natural bamboo has two components:
bamboo fibers in vascular bundles and parenchyma cells around them.
The tightly arranged bamboo fibers with thick cell walls provide the
most mechanical properties of bamboo while the parenchyma cells play
as the matrix of a bio-composite material, which has connecting and
filling effects. The unidirectional fibers produce high strength and
modulus in the longitudinal direction but generate weak tensile strength
and shear strength in the transverse direction [8]. Therefore, bamboo
usually fails because of the interlaminar cracks [9].
Since now, lots of studies have been taken to reveal how bamboo’s
spatial structure affects its corresponding mechanical properties
[10–14], especially the transverse fracture property [15–17]. Similar to
other fibrous composite materials [18–20], bamboo is prone to produce
interlaminar cracks in the radial - longitudinal (RL) plane, which means
the initial crack is perpendicular to the R direction and expands along
the L direction. The research carried out by Chen et al. [21] showed that
the Mode-I interlaminar fracture energy (GIC) of bamboo strips with RL
crack varies with the fiber density, in which GIC reaches its maximum

* Corresponding authors at: College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China (Z. Li).
E-mail addresses: liuwen@bjfu.edu.cn (W. Liu), li_zhi@zju.edu.cn (Z. Li).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2022.115777
Received 21 December 2021; Received in revised form 15 April 2022; Accepted 13 May 2022
Available online 24 May 2022
0263-8223/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
C. Liu et al.
Fig. 1. Functionally graded hierarchical structure of bamboo and the optimized structure – “bamboo nodes”.
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of specimens prepared from bamboo and Schematic diagram of specimens.
value in the region with medium density while obvious brittleness
happens in the high-density region. As to the situation of the interlam­
inar crack in tangential – longitudinal (TL) plane, Shao et al. [9]
demonstrated that the Mode-I interlaminar fracture toughness (KIC) of
bamboo strips with TL crack is independent of the distributing density of
vascular bundles. Following this study, Wang et al. [8] proved that the
complex microstructure of bamboo nodes can restrict the propagation of
an interlaminar crack in TL direction as well as improve KIC by 1.87
times. According to previous studies, it is seen that the interlaminar
fracture property of bamboo is not only closely related to fiber density
but also influenced by the bamboo nodes. However, although the
microstructure of bamboo internode is clear [22], that of a bamboo node
only has a few investigations. Chen et al. [5] indicated that the bamboo
node has coarser fiber bundles, higher volumes of fibers, and 3D woven
hierarchical fibrous structures. However, the paper primarily focused on
the relationship between the node structure and tensile properties, and
there is limited research on the fiber distribution and spatial structure of
the bamboo node.
In order to illustrate the influencing effects of gradient-distributed
internode fibers on RL fracture property and to explore the restricting
effects of node fibers on RL fracture crack, this study researches the
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Composite Structures 294 (2022) 115777
fracture performances of bamboo of internode, node, and their transi­
tion zone, which are related with the corresponding microstructures,
especially the variation of fiber density and fiber orientation.
2. Material and experiment
2.1. Specimen preparation
As shown in Figs. 2, 5-6 years old Moso bamboo(belonging to
Phyllostachys edulis)is first cut into bamboo poles along the grain di­
rection, then the outer and inner surfaces of these poles are removed to
obtain bamboo strips without radian, and finally, the bamboo strips are
subjected to treatments such as steaming and drying. The above steps
are carried out in a bamboo processing plant. The bamboo strips used in
this experiment are purchased from Hunan Taohuajiang Bamboo
Technology Co., Ltd. The length, width and height of the strips are 2000
mm, 21.5 mm and 6 mm respectively. Because Mode-I interlaminar
fracture performance of bamboo is measured using the double cantilever
beam (DCB) method, the purchased bamboo strips need to be processed
further. After the steps of cutting, determining the fiber content(see
Section 2.2), and pasting the hinges, the purchased strips are finally
C. Liu et al. Composite Structures 294 (2022) 115777

Fig. 3. Calculate the percentage of vascular bundle volume to group bamboo strips.

Table 1
Statistical table of bamboo strip serial number and corresponding gradient range.
No. Node condition Vascular bundle density Gradient range No. Node condition Vascular bundle density Gradient range

I1-1 Without 0.14 0.1 W1-1 With 0.12 0.1

I1-2 Without 0.12 0.1 W1-2 With 0.12 0.1
I1-3 Without 0.14 0.1 W1-3 With 0.16 0.1
I2-1 Without 0.21 0.2 W2-1 With 0.22 0.2
I2-2 Without 0.25 0.2 W2-2 With 0.24 0.2
I2-3 Without 0.26 0.2 W2-3 With 0.25 0.2
I3-1 Without 0.33 0.3 W3-1 With 0.36 0.3
I3-2 Without 0.33 0.3 W3-2 With 0.33 0.3
I3-3 Without 0.36 0.3 W3-3 With 0.31 0.3
I4-1 Without 0.43 0.4 W4-1 With 0.43 0.4
I4-2 Without 0.45 0.4 W4-2 With 0.41 0.4
I4-3 Without 0.41 0.4 W4-3 With 0.44 0.4
I5-1 Without 0.52 0.5 W5-1 With 0.50 0.5
I5-2 Without 0.55 0.5 W5-2 With 0.56 0.5
I5-3 Without 0.57 0.5 W5-3 With 0.55 0.5

made into the specimens as shown in Fig. 2.
There are two groups of specimens: internode specimens and node
specimens. As shown in Fig. 2, their dimensions are set as 80 mm × 21.5
mm × 6 mm, and the initial crack length is 32 mm with a crack-to-length
ratio of 0.4. Especially, for the node specimens, the distance from the
node to crack tip is controlled as 56 mm, 0.7 times of specimen length.
The initial crack is cleaved by a knife along the middle line of the
specimen parallel to the grain to simulate a naturally occurring sharp
crack.
Before testing, all oven-dry specimens are conditioned in a humidity
chamber with humidity of 65 ± 2% relative humidity (RH) and tem­
perature of 20 ± 0.5 ◦ C for more than 48hrs. The measured moisture
content (MC) of the specimen is about 9.0 ± 0.5% [23–24].
steps. First, the cross-section of the bamboo strip is polished by the table
grander and then cleaned by anhydrous alcohol to make the vascular
bundles show clearly. Then, this cross-section is photoed with a Canon
D3400 camera. The pictures are processed by Photoshop software to
obtain the obvious color difference between vascular bundles and basic
tissues. Finally, the processed images are imported into Image Pro Plus
software to calculate the area of vascular bundles. Because that the
initial crack tip is located at the centerline of the thickness, the middle
1/3 part of the section is calculated and analyzed, as shown in Fig. 3. The
internode and node specimens are all divided into five gradient groups
based on their fiber content: 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5, as shown in
Table 1.

2.3. DCB fracture test

2.2. Determination of fiber content
The fiber content in raw bamboo is determined as the area ratio
between bamboo fibers and the cross-section [25–26]. The image pro­
cessing method is used to determine the fiber content by the following
The DCB specimens are subjected to tensile load using E420 Material
Testing System (MTS) test machine with the displacement controlling
rate of 1 mm/min. During the test, the load is applied on the DCB
specimen through two steel piano hinges which are bonded to the top

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Fig. 4. Fictitious unloading and reloading trajectory.
and bottom surfaces, as shown in Fig. 2.
Equivalent linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) is used to
calculate the crack growth resistance R of each specimen. The crack
growth resistance R is defined as the energy consumed per unit area of
crack expansion, and the R resistance can be calculated according to the
energy consumption represented by the area under the P-δ curve.
By linear superposition assumption, the unloading trajectory is
assumed to pass through the origin 0 to account for the unrecoverable
plastic deformation after unloading, then the assumed unloading tra­
jectories at points B and D on the P-δ curve and the energy consumption
of the specimen developed from point B to point D are shown in Fig. 4.
The energy increment of the specimen from point B to point D can be
calculated by the following formula:
dΠ = dU − Pdδ
Where U denotes the recoverable elastic strain energy after unloading.
The energy dissipation − dΠ from point B to point D is represented by the
area shaded in Fig. 4, i.e., AOBDO. Therefore R resistance can be calcu­
lated by AOBDO/B(ad-ab). The calculation of AOBDO is as follows:
Fig. 5. Schematic diagram of the whole calculation process.
Composite Structures 294 (2022) 115777
p2
AOBDO = dC (2)
2
Where C is the secant compliance. Then the R resistance calculated by
the energy dissipation method according to the linear superposition
assumption is
p2 dC
R= (3)
2b da
Similarly, the initial cracking fracture toughness GIC expressed in
terms of energy release rate is
2
Fcr dC
GIC = (4)
2b da
Where, b is the width of the specimen, a is the crack length and Fcr is the
initial cracking loading.
2.4. Crack length determining method
As illustrated in the above equations, the crack length is of key
importance to measure the fracture property [27–28]. The crack length
in this study is determined by the non-contacting testing technique
called DIC. The fundamental working theory of DIC is based on tracking
spatial variation of greyscale values of the region of interest between the
original image and deformed image. With this technique, strain can be
calculated from a series of consecutive images with sub pixel resolution.
To get good tracking results, the measuring surface of specimens is
first sprayed with matte white paint, then uniformly distributed speckles
with more than 50% coverage are painted on the specimen surface to
provide adequate contrast. The charge-coupled device (CCD) camera is
applied to shoot the area of interest of the specimen. During the test, the
camera acquisition frequency is set to 1 Hz. The Digital Correlation and
Tracking software is utilized to process the data of captured images and
calculate the strain filed. Fig. 5 shows the schematic diagram of the
whole process.
In this software, the first image is serviced as the reference image
(1) before deformation. The measured zone in this image is marked by the
grids in which the intersections serve as the calculation point of crack
length. Since the distances between the calculation points are equal in
the software and the number of points is entered manually, the location
of each point can be obtained when the actual length of the measured
zone is known. Then, two calculation points in the same column are
selected to constitute a measurement group, and the software will
calculate the ε-t curve between these two points. As the crack
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Fig. 6. The crack reaches the location of measurement groups at the time when the peak strain appears.
approaches the measurement group, the strain value between the two
calculated points of the group will gradually increase, but when the
crack reaches the group, the strain value between these two points will
retract as the deformation energy at this location is released. Therefore,
as shown in Fig. 6, the crack reaches the location of this measurement
group at the time when the peak strain appears. Finally, by repeating the
above operation for other measurement groups, the crack length-time
curves can be obtained.
2.5. Observation of bamboo microstructure
The microstructure of bamboo internode has been fully observed and
precisely illustrated [1229,30]. However, the microstructures of the
bamboo node as well as the transition zone from internode to node are
not clear, which are quite important to explain the mechanical property
of bamboo. In this study, their microstructures are observed by the op­
tical electron microscope machine. As shown in Fig. 7, several cross and
longitudinal continued sections of the bamboo strip are produced and
observed. The clear and smooth sections at the microscale are obtained
by TROJAN Alpha 100 Grinding Machine, along with TROJAN SC-JP
Polishing Cloth and MD-W Single Crystal Diamond Polishing Fluid.
First, the different section locations are marked on the bamboo strips.
Second, bamboo strips are polished by fine sandpapers and then by
polishing fluid, until it reaches one selected section. Then, after being
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Composite Structures 294 (2022) 115777
cleaned by anhydrous alcohol, the micro-structure of this section is
observed using the optical electron microscope. After that, it goes to the
next section by repeating the above operations. Finally, the observed
microstructures are integrated in order, and the three-dimensional fiber
distributions in the bamboo node can be obtained.
3. Fracture properties of bamboo internode and node
3.1. Fracture performance of bamboo internode
After obtaining the crack length-time curve, a one-to-one corre­
spondence between crack length and compliance can be established
through time. The R-curves calculated according to Eq. (5) are shown in
Fig. 8. The graded intensive distribution of bamboo fibers in the radial
direction from inside part to outside part naturally arouses a function­
ally gradient behavior along the thickness of the strips [31]. As shown in
Fig. 8, bamboo strips with high fiber content exhibit high crack growth
resistance within the gradient range used in the tests. The R-curves of
different groups have similarities in the developing trend, in which the
resistance curves with different fiber contents all show the characteris­
tics of first increasing and then stable shape. However, although the
resistance curves have a similar trend, their final values of different
groups in the stable stage are rather different, which increase with the
fiber content. For example, the mean of the final values of the stable
C. Liu et al.
Fig. 7. The continued sections obtained by polishing are observed by an optical microscope.
stage is approximately 620 N/mm, 745 N/mm, 810 N/mm, 900 N/mm
and 1800 N/mm, for the vascular bundle contents increase from 0.1 to
0.5.
In terms of the initial cracking fracture toughness GIC, the specimens
exhibit a more pronounced functional gradient. Substituting the initial
cracking load into Eq. (6), the obtained GIC is depicted in Fig. 9. The
results demonstrate that the mean value of interlaminar Mode-I fracture
toughness of internode specimens are 345.59 N/mm, 373.45 N/mm,
504.86 N/mm, 555.22 N/mm, and 711.31 N/mm, respectively, for the
five gradients of fiber contents as v = 0.1–0.5, where v refers to fiber
content. The fitted quadratic equation between GIC and v is shown in
Fig. 9. Obviously, the fracture parameters exhibit a functional gradient,
i.e., the fracture parameters increase with increasing fiber content
within the gradient range used in the tests.
3.2. Fracture performance from bamboo internode to node
The unidirectional fibers in bamboo internode produce excellent
mechanical properties in the longitudinal direction, but weak perfor­
mance in the transverse direction [1932]. Fortunately, the optimized
structure – “bamboo node” is formed in the long natural evolution
process, which helps bamboo to overcome the disadvantages in the
radial direction and improve fracture performance [8]. Whereas, this
kind of improvement does not suddenly appear at the bamboo node.
Compared with the internodes, the fracture performance of the transi­
tion zone from the internodes to the bamboo node is also significantly
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Composite Structures 294 (2022) 115777
improved. As depicted in Fig. 10, unlike the internode specimens, the
crack path of node specimens has the following characteristics: it pro­
gressively varies from a straight line to a slight bending curve in the
transition zone from internode to node, but its overall direction is still
longitudinal; it begins to expand in the R direction when reaching the
node, resulting to a complex fracture mode at this location.
Since it is still a Mode-I fracture in the transition zone, the R-curve
can still be calculated according to Eq. (2). As shown in Fig. 11, the node
specimens exhibit much higher values of interlaminar fracture energy
than internode specimens. Apparently, the crack propagation process of
node specimens can be approximately divided into two phases: the
resistance curves of node specimens are quite close to those of the
internode specimens, and then the curves rise sharply, as depicted in
Fig. 11. For example, the mean value of maximum resistance energy of
node group with v = 0.1 is 2780 N/mm, which greatly exceeds the
maximum value of corresponding internode specimens as 620 N/mm.
And the same phenomena happen for the other groups, with the mean
values of maximum resistance energy as 2557 N/mm, 2464 N/mm,
2547 N/mm, and 3184 N/mm, respectively. They also greatly exceed
the mean of the maximum value of corresponding internode specimens.
3.3. Fracture performance of bamboo node
As illustrated above, the Mode-I fracture behavior of node specimens
turns into the complex-mode performance at the node location. In this
study, the contribution of the bamboo node to interlaminar RL fracture
C. Liu et al. Composite Structures 294 (2022) 115777

R
R

R
a a a

R
R

a a

Fig. 8. R curves of internode specimens with different fiber content.

Fig. 9. Fracture performance increases as the fiber content v rises: (a) GIC and (b) R values of the stable stage increases as the fiber content v rises.

Fig. 10. The crack path can be divided into straight and curved phases between nodes.

is analyzed by the load-displacement curve and fracture energy
increasement. Fig. 12 exhibits typical load-displacement curves for
internode and node specimens with the same fiber content. Since the
initial cracks are all located in the internode, the load-displacement
curves of the internode and the node specimens are very similar
before reaching the peak load, for the same fiber content. Whereas,
different from the post-peak softening behavior of the internode
specimen, the specimen with node has a long hardening stage after the
softening behavior, and then reaches the second peak load. Clearly, the
interesting hardening phenomenon is due to the effect of the bamboo
node. It indicates that the originally weak interlaminar fracture property
of bamboo can be improved by its node, therefore, the fracture energy
required for crack propagation in this region is increased.
By calculating the area under the load-displacement curve, the

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R

R
R
a a a

R
R

a a

Fig. 11. R curves of node specimens with different fiber content.

Fig. 12. The load-displacement curves of the different specimen.

absorbed energy is obtained separately for the stages of crack initiation
and propagation before it reaches the bamboo node and the stage for
crack development in the bamboo node. Obviously, the energy absorbed
in the hardening stage is significantly greater than that in the previous
stage with all five different fiber contents, as illustrated in Fig. 13.
However, it is worth noting that the crack length in the hardening stage
is much smaller than in the previous stage, usually only 3–4 mm. The
large energy consumption and very limited crack length, all these results
indicate that the special microstructure of the bamboo node has a sig­
nificant toughening and restricting effect on the interlaminar fracture of
raw bamboo.
4. Microstructure of bamboo internode and node
4.1. Microstructure of bamboo internode and corresponding gradient
performance
As depicted in Fig. 8, the interlaminar fracture energy of bamboo
internode with v = 0.1–0.5 shows functionally gradient characteristics,
in which more fibers result in larger fracture energy. Previous studies
have confirmed that when interlaminar Mode-I fracture occurs between
bamboo nodes, the path of crack growth parallel to the grain is flat and
smooth and the crack is a self-similar fracture without fiber bridging. It
indicates fracture cracks are likely to develop in the intercellular areas
between cells because that both fibers and parenchyma cells have

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the above phenomenon. In addition, the almost hollow vessels wrapped

by bamboo fibers also contribute because the hollow vessels can also
deflect the crack path. The test result shows that the crack paths in
internode specimens with high fiber contents are more tortuous
compared to the specimens with low fiber contents. The tortuous path
can increase the total length of the fracture path at the cross-section,
which consequently results in large fracture energy.
In all, the fibers in vascular bundles make the fracture crack require
more energy to propagate, accordingly, specimens with high fiber con­
tents tend to exhibit larger fracture energy compared to the case of low
fiber contents.

4.2. Microstructure of transition zone form internode to node

As discussed above, when the fracture crack develops from the

bamboo internode towards the node, its resistance curve will rise
significantly, indicating that the crack propagation becomes much more
restricted. This phenomenon is largely related to the material micro­
structure, especially the variation of fiber density and fiber orientation.
In order to explore the microstructure of transition zone from internode
Fig. 13. The absorbed energy of the two stages with different fiber content.
to node, especially the evolution of vascular bundles, the polished cross-
sections of the bamboo strip along longitudinal direction are observed
stronger toughness than their interfacial zones. Referring to the expe­
by the microscope.
rience of previous studies, the crack path is observed in this test to
As depicted in Fig. 15, when approaching the node, the shape and
explain the functionally gradient fracture behavior. Given that the crack
size of vascular bundles both have obvious changes. In terms of shape,
path along the L direction is known to be flat and smooth, we observe the
the upper and lower fiber sheaths gradually expand and encase the
crack path along the T direction.
adjacent vessels, at the same time, the left and right fiber sheaths
Fig. 14 shows the cross-sections of two specimens with different fiber
become slender with their crescent-like shape gradually disappearing,
content at their initial crack tip points. It is seen that the cracks are more
making the vascular bundle change from crescent shape to semicircular
likely to extend in the interfacial zones between fibers and basic tissues
shape. In addition, compared with the internodes, the area of vascular
than between fibers. The crack path close to fibers is quite tortuous while
bundles at this time is significantly increased. Larger vascular bundle
the crack path between basic tissues is smooth. That the fibers are small
means higher fiber content, which makes the crack path on the cross-
but strong while the tissue cells are larger but rather weak is the cause of
section more tortuous. Moreover, larger hollow vessels produce more

Fig. 14. The cross sections of specimens with different fiber content at their crack initiation points.

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Fig. 15. When approaching the node, the shape and size of vascular bundles have obvious changes.
Fig. 16. There are slightly bending longitudinal vascular bundles near the bamboo node.
energy absorption. Therefore, the fracture toughening effect gradually
increases when approaching the bamboo node.
Moreover, the strengthening mechanism goes further than that.
Previous studies have shown that some of the vascular bundles are
deflected in a radial direction when they are close to the bamboo node.
The results of this test also confirm this.
When polishing and observing along the longitudinal direction, as
the polishing sections get closer and closer to the bamboo node, some
new vascular bundles with a quite different shape appear, and these
vascular bundles are circled in red in Fig. 16. These particular vascular
bundles are produced by deflecting the longitudinal vascular bundles
into the radial direction, which is proved by the microscopic observation
on the polished sections in the radial direction, as shown in Fig. 16. With
the polishing sections in the radial direction increasing from side to­
wards side, the typical shapes of two-semicircular vascular bundles
gradually appear, indicating the existence of the deflected longitudinal
vascular bundles. The appearance of these deflected vascular bundles is
the reason for the phenomenon that the crack changes from a straight
line at the internode into a slightly curved curve in the transition zone,
as shown in Fig. 11. However, the strengthening effect is limited, which
does not change the overall direction of the crack path.
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Composite Structures 294 (2022) 115777
4.3. Microstructure of bamboo node and corresponding strengthening
performance
The above analysis reveals that the bamboo node can significantly
improve the fracture properties of bamboo. Former several studies
attribute the different mechanical performances between internode and
node to the special spatial microstructure of bamboo node [10–1233],
especially the radial fibers in bamboo node [34]. However, these studies
just roughly introduce the microstructure of the bamboo node without
measurement. Indeed, how do the radial fibers distribute and combine
with the longitudinal fibers? How does the strengthening effect from
radial fibers act on the crack? Therefore, it is essential to explore the
microstructure of bamboo nodes as well as its effect on fracture cracks.
This study explores the detailed microstructure of bamboo nodes by
microscopic observation on continuous sections: the samples are pol­
ished in both radial and longitudinal directions with 0.1 mm intervals
and 0.2 mm intervals, respectively, to observe the fiber distributions.
The same vascular bundle is selected and measured continuously to
explain the fiber evolution clearly, as shown in Fig. 17. It is seen that the
shape of the longitudinal vascular bundle is more and more like two
semicircles, meanwhile, the fiber content increases. Moreover, the
C. Liu et al. Composite Structures 294 (2022) 115777

Fig. 17. The evolution process of the vascular bundle.

Fig. 18. Schematic diagram of three-dimensional distribution of vascular bundles in bamboo node.

overall trend of the longitudinal vascular bundle is to extend along the
longitudinal direction and eventually pass through the bamboo node.
The transverse fibers are of key importance to strengthen interlam­
inar fracture property. As shown in Fig. 7, unlike the close arrangement
of longitudinal vascular bundles, the spaces among are transverse
vascular bundles rather large. They are approximately divided into two
types: a small number of thick ones distributing in the middle region and
a big number of thin ones distributing in the side upper and lower re­
gions. The extension and evolution process of both thick and thin
vascular bundles are continuously measured, as shown in Fig. 17. It

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Fig. 19. The crack deviates from its original direction and goes towards fiber pull-out side.
shows that the length of the thick vascular bundle can exceed 6 mm,
which indicates that it can penetrate the entire thickness of bamboo
node in the radial direction, whereas the thin vascular bundle has a
limited length of about 3.5 mm in the radial direction, which cannot
distribute thoroughly through the radial direction. Therefore, the radial
vascular bundles in the middle region are relatively thick and long,
while those in the side regions are thin and short.
According to the above microscopic observation, the detailed three-
dimensional distribution of vascular bundles in the bamboo node is
schematically shown in Fig. 18. As can be seen from Fig. 18, there are
two kinds of vascular bundles in the bamboo node, namely longitudinal
vascular bundles, and radial vascular bundles. The longitudinal vascular
bundles in the bamboo node become thicker and increase in volume. In
terms of radial vascular bundles, the radial vascular bundles in the
middle region are relatively thick and long, while those in the side re­
gions are thin and short.
When the fracture crack extends to the bamboo node, it first reaches
the short and thin radial vascular bundles, and deviates to the interfacial
zones between these short vascular bundles and their around tissues,
causing interfacial crack and then pull-out of the short vascular bundles,
as schematically illustrated in Fig. 19. As a result, the crack deviates
from its original direction and goes towards the fiber pull-out side. Then,
when the crack further extends to the long and thick vascular bundles,
similar to the previous situation, interfacial crack is also generated.
Since the long radial vascular bundles penetrate the bamboo node, the
cracks expand radially and also penetrate the bamboo node, eventually
causing the specimen to break at the bamboo node. Eventually, due to
the two types of radial vascular bundles, the Mode-I fracture in the
bamboo internode develops into the mixed-mode fracture in the bamboo
node.
According to the above analysis, the fracture process in the bamboo
node is dependent on the distribution of radial vascular bundles. It in­
cludes multiple damage modes, such as interfacial delamination,
vascular bundles pulling out, and cracks with inclined deflection. So, the
fracture process in the bamboo node has more energy absorption
mechanisms than the fracture in the bamboo internode. This is the
strengthening effect of the bamboo node on interlaminar RL Mode-I
fracture properties of bamboo.
5. Conclusion
In this study, the interlaminar RL fracture performances of bamboo
internode and node are researched, which are related to the micro-
structures, especially the fiber distributions.
Bamboo internode specimens with higher fiber contents tend to
exhibit higher fracture energy than the case of lower fiber contents, that
is, the fracture energy presents the functional gradient characteristics
with fiber content. It is mainly because that more longitudinal vascular
bundles make the fracture crack more tortuous and ultimately need
more fracture energy. Furthermore, the node specimens have much-
strengthened fracture performance than internode specimens with the
same fiber contents, and the strengthening behavior is related to the
12
Composite Structures 294 (2022) 115777
fiber distribution at the bamboo node. The specific three-dimensional
structure of fiber distributions in the bamboo node is built by the
method of microscopic observation on continuous sections. The longi­
tudinal vascular bundles are thicker at the bamboo node, and some of
the thicker radial vascular bundles extend from one side of the bamboo
strip to the other, while the thinner radial vascular bundles have a
shorter length. Among them, the radial vascular bundles are of key
importance to the strengthening behavior. The radial vascular bundles
change fracture patterns and finally play the effect of resisting crack
propagation.
In addition to the above, the functional graded performance in
bamboo internode and the strengthening behavior in bamboo node due
to the fiber distributions shall be useful for the biological modeling
purpose in exploring and processing of advanced structural materials.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Chengyang Liu: Investigation, Writing - original draft. Mingxi Liu:
Investigation. Wen Liu: Methodology, Funding acquisition, Writing -
review & editing. Zhi Li: Methodology, Funding acquisition. Feng Xu:
Resources.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the financial supports by Zhejiang
University (Ninghai) Research Center for Bio-based Materials and Car­
bon Neutral Development and “the National Key Research and Devel­
opment Project of China (No. 2019YFDI101002)”.
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