[!abstract] Contents

• Terminology
• History and demand
  • Discovery and early use
  • Use in construction
  • Demand trend
• Composition and production
  • Raw materials
• Properties
  • Mechanical
  • Durability
• Uses in buildings
  • Building elements
  • Pros and cons
• Manufacturing and cost
  • Main manufacturers and suppliers
• Sources

Terminology

• Culm: the hollow, jointed stem
• Node: solid joint along the culm
• Clumping / running: rhizome habits of bamboo species
• Leaching: removing sap sugars by water
• Engineered bamboo: bamboo strips or fibers processed into panels and flooring (not detailed in the sources reviewed)

History and demand

Discovery and early use

• Fifth century BC: earliest surviving bamboo strips used as a writing medium in China; paper largely displaced them by the fourth century AD
• 1486: bamboo charcoal documented in China (Ming dynasty)

Use in construction

• Suspension bridges in China and India, scaffolding (banned in China for buildings over six stories but still used on Hong Kong skyscrapers), woven walls in Philippine nipa huts, and rafts

Demand trend

• The global bamboo industry was worth over $72 billion in 2019 and has grown significantly in recent decades; the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation was established in 1997

Composition and production

Raw materials

• More than 1,400 species in 115 genera; vascular bundles scattered through the culm wall, no cambium ring, columnar rather than tapering culms
• Culms reach full diameter and height in one season, harden over following years, and eventually decay after about 5 to 8 years

Properties

Mechanical

• Tensile strength: Bambusa tulda has tested as high as 60,000 psi (400 MPa)
• Natural composite with a high strength-to-weight ratio

Durability

• Exposed to ground contact or rain, bamboo breaks down quickly if harvested or handled incorrectly; culms are cut when strength is highest and sap sugar lowest, then leached and dried slowly in shade to avoid cracking

Uses in buildings

Building elements

• Scaffolding: bamboo scaffolding, still used on Hong Kong high-rises though banned in China for buildings over six stories
• Wall Cladding: woven bamboo walls in nipa huts
• Timber Bridges: suspension bridges in China and India

Pros and cons

Pros

• Grows 30 to 100 mm per day in many temperate cultivated species; some up to 91 cm in 24 hours
• Can be grown on marginal land; estimated 100 to 400 tonnes of carbon absorbed per hectare
• Strong for its weight

Cons

• Decays quickly in ground contact or rain if mishandled
• Sugar in the sap attracts pests if not leached
• Natural round culms need slow shade drying to avoid cracking

Manufacturing and cost

Main manufacturers and suppliers

• Cali Bamboo

Trade association: International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Bamboo, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo