Mechanical Strength Analysis of Bamboo for Flood Resilient Shelters: A Preliminary Study

The main objective of the study was to investigate the mechanical properties of Moso bamboo species (Phyllostachys pubescens) in wet and dry conditions and waste rubber engineered bamboo, according to climate for temporary shelter design during flood occurrence. For experiment, bamboo of diameter 5 cm and made four samples (length 25 mm, width 3 mm and thickness 1.5 mm) for testing tensile strength and flexure modulus (length 13 mm, width 2 mm and thickness 1 mm). The study finds that the tensile stress for dry sample (A) was 29.0 MPa; elongation break was 4.5% and these parameters for water soaked sample (A1) were 17.1 MPa and 10.6% respectively. Tensile stress for dry sample laminated with rubber tube (B) was 31.5 MPa; elongation break was 3.1% and these parameters for rubber tube laminated water soaked sample (B1) were 19.9 MPa and 5.6% respectively. Flexural strength for samples A, A1, B and B1 were 290.5, 283.1, 339.9 and 292.8 MPa respectively. Results indicate that the strength of rubber tube laminated samples increases. The study concludes that vehicles' waste rubber tubes can be utilized to enhance the strength of bamboo for making temporary shelter in flood affected areas.