Flexural fatigue behavior of bamboo-based products

AbstractBamboo-based products are increasingly used in structural engineering fields. Specifically, their application requires consideration of factors that affect their service life, such as the fatigue behavior. Bamboo-based materials, such as bamboo scrimber, have a high density and uneven stress distribution. These structural properties seriously affect the quality of the bamboo-based materials, and lead to increased fatigue. To solve this problem, the fatigue behavior of bamboo laminated veneer lumber (BLVL) was studied. BLVL was manufactured by arranging rolled and broomed bamboo bundles and hot-pressing. This study describes the flexural fatigue behavior of BLVL at different stress levels. The fatigue was characterized by the fatigue failure, the fatigue hysteresis loops, the energy loss, and stiffness degradation. The results demonstrated that the BLVL material had good fatigue-resisting performances. The fatigue life of BLVL under 80% stress level was estimated to be about 1,700,000 cycles. The main failure modes of the BLVL included fiber tearing, fiber pullout, fiber breakage, and fiber-matrix debonding. The total energy loss at higher stress levels was less than that at low stress levels. Higher stress levels corresponded to a larger drop in stiffness.