121 Bamboo Guadua angustifolia as a Structural Material for Design G. Granados, F. Lamus, J. Lozano, P. Luna and C. Takeuchi Universidad Nacional de Colombia Colombia Keywords: Guadua angustifolia, mechanical properties, allowable stresses, design parameters, quality control Abstract Guadua angustifolia has been used in Colombia as construction material for centuries. The different earthquakes in Colombian history have demonstrated the good seismic performance of structures and pointed the errors of inadequate use. So, normalized parameters are necessary for seismic resistant design of G. angustifolia structures; these parameters must include allowable stresses values and demand a material quality control during the construction process. This paper presents the results obtained from the project “Validation of G. angustifolia as a structural material for allowable stresses method design”, financed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Colombia and carried out by the National University of Colombia. The project aims to establish values of allowable stresses, to design methods for structures and to establish a protocol of the material quality control during construction. Samples of G. angustifolia from three different areas of Colombia have been tested in compression, tension and shear parallel to the fiber, bending, torsion and perpendicular compression, in order to determine allowable stresses for different loads. The samples were taken from the bottom, middle and top parts of the culm. The design methods by allowable stresses and the protocol of quality control are based on structural mechanics and different research projects made at National University of Colombia. INTRODUCTION The use of bamboo as a structural material is not common due to the use of conventional materials such as concrete, steel and masonry and the lack of standardized design parameters. In Colombia in 1998, the Chapter E-7 of the Colombian Seismic Resistant Design Standard NSR-98 (AIS, 1998), established the requirements for the design of housing in Bahareque encementado system that consists in a wall resistant system made of Guadua angustifolia as an internal structure covered by mortar. In 2004, the ISO 22156 (ISO, 2004) set general parameters that must be taken into account for design of bamboo structures. In 2006 the NTC 5407 (ICONTEC, 2006) was published, that describes the different joints that can be used in bamboo structures. Only until 2010, the Guadua angustifolia itself was recognized as a structural material in Colombia to be included in the Chapter G.12 of the new Colombian Seismic Resistant Design Standard NSR-10 (AIS, 2010) where the main use of Bambusa guadua is limited to housing, commerce, industry and education structures with a maximum height of two stories. This paper presents the results of the project “Validation of Guadua angustifolia as structural material for allowable stress method design”, financed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Colombia (Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural de Colombia) and carried out by the National University of Colombia (Universidad Nacional de Colombia). The design method of Guadua angustifolia structures was established, the allowable stresses for different load conditions were found and a quality control of materials during construction protocol was formulated. Finally, it is important to mention that the design method established in the project “Validation of Guadua angustifolia as structural material for allowable stress method design” was used as a basic material for the redaction of the Chapter G-12 of the NSR-10. Proc. I st IS on Genetic Resources of Bamboos and Palms and III rd IS on Ornamental Palms Eds.: R.P. Uzzo et al. Acta Hort. 1003, ISHS 2013