Structural behavior of prefabricated bamboo-lightweight concrete composite beams with perforated steel plate connectors

To reduce the self-weight of bamboo-concrete composite (BCC) beams and realize rapid industrial production, innovative assembled bamboo-lightweight concrete composite (ABLCC) beams are presented for use in engineering structures. To verify the structural performance of the ABLCC beams, a series of bending tests were performed on the bamboo beams, the cast-in-place bamboo-lightweight concrete composite (PBLCC) beams and the ABLCC beams. The effects of the thickness of the perforated steel plate, the connector spacing, and the construction technology on the BCC beams were investigated. The test results showed that the failure mode of the ABLCC beams was bamboo fiber cracking at the bottom of the mid-span. Compared with the benchmark bamboo beams, the bending capacity and stiffness of the ABLCC beams increased by 1.43–1.94 times and 2.20–4.16 times, respectively. Compared with the cast-in-place bamboo-lightweight concrete composite (PBLCC) beams, the bending capacity of the ABLCC beam was essentially the same, and the flexural stiffness increased by 1.18 times. The bending capacity, flexural stiffness and combination efficiency of the ABLCC beam increased with decreasing connector spacing. The increase in the thickness of the perforated steel plate did not have a substantial effect on the flexural stiffness of the ABLCC beam. Analytical and numerical methods were validated against the experimental results.