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hubie [soylentnews.org] writes:

Researchers publish first comprehensive structural engineering manual for bamboo [warwick.ac.uk]:

University of Warwick engineers have led the creation of a significant milestone manual for bamboo engineering, which will drive the low-carbon construction sector.

Bamboo has been used in construction for millennia, yet colonisation and industrialisation have resulted in the replacement of this natural resource by technologies such as steel, concrete, and masonry. This change became more entrenched in the twentieth century with the development of construction codes as means to ensure structures were safe, since none were written for bamboo.

Dr. David Trujillo, Assistant Professor in Humanitarian Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Warwick said: "Bamboo is a fast-growing, strong, inexpensive, and highly sustainable material, and, amongst other things, it is a very effective carbon sink (naturally absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere).

"Unfortunately, the countries that had the expertise in developing construction codes to regulate the design and building of structures, were not those interested in bamboo. For this to change, international collaboration was needed."

The international collaboration between Warwick, Pittsburgh, Arup, INBAR and BASE has since met this challenge and produced the new Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) manual [istructe.org] providing comprehensive guidance about the design of bamboo structures. It is the first structural engineering manual for bamboo in the world.

[...] This free resource will empower engineers across the tropics and subtropics to adopt bamboo at no cost. With over 1600 species of bamboo spread across all continents except for Antarctica and Europe (although numerous species successfully thrive across Europe), this manual has the chance to hugely expand the usage of this bio-based material.

The manual centres in the use of bamboo poles (the stems) as the main structural component of buildings. In these structures, bamboo poles act as beams and columns, though the manual also explains how to use bamboo in a structural system called Composite Bamboo Shear Walls – CBSW. This system is particularly effective for making resilient housing in earthquake and typhoon prone locations.

In case you want to start your own building project: Manual for the design of bamboo structures to ISO 22156:2021 [istructe.org]

Original Submission