Finite element analysis of bamboo and joints using steel members under various loading conditions for design study R Khatry 1 1 Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Kanpur, India D P Mishra 1 Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Kanpur, India Abstract —A finite element model study of bamboo and joints using steel members has been presented in the following article. The model considers bamboo as a non-uniform orthotropic linear elastic material. Experimental values of properties presented by various authors have been used. Various kinds of joints and loading conditions expected in the given case studies have been analyzed. Equivalent stress, strain both inside and outside the culm have been presented along with the total deformation values. It was concluded that loading conditions were well below the strength limit (60 MPA (compressive)) for the current case. Also the importance of adhesive joint in improving the strain and deformation in the bonded region was illustrate Index Terms — Finite Element Analysis, Bamboo, Orthotropic material, Elastic I. INTRODUCTION Bamboo has been considered as a promising structural material all over the world. Authors have written on its applications [1]. Bamboo has advantage over timber in terms of growth period. It can be utilized in 3-4 years from the time of plantation [2]. India contains the most diverse reserve of bamboo crops after china [3]. Annual production in India is around 4.6 million tons. Annual yield of bamboo is around 0.2 – 0.4 tons per hectare [3]. Bamboo is a cheap structural material and does not require any pre-processing like steel hence its extensive use should be encouraged. A typical bamboo is a cellulose fiber and lignin matrix based composite. It is in the shape of a hollow cylinder with nodes at various points along its length. The fibers run along the length in the hollow part and run in random directions in the nodes. Hence properties are different in different directions and at different locations depending on the concentration and direction of fibers. Properties of bamboo and their variation in the radial direction and along its nodes have been reported [4]. Several authors have reported on tensile, compressive, shear, fracture and other properties of bamboo experimentally studied on laboratory equipment. Several practical issues arise while using bamboo as a structural material like its cylindrical profile which makes stabilization difficult. It has a hollow nature which makes it unable to bear compressive loads along radial direction. But at the same time this leads to its light weight nature. Also surface hardness of bamboo is questionable since fibers may come out due to an abrasive blow to the surface which may lead to durability issues. Designing of structures using bamboo is gaining importance. To design structure in the future using bamboo would require finite element analysis techniques. Attempts have been made to model different properties and applications of bamboo [6], [7]. An attempt to model bamboo as a structural material for load applications has been presented in the present article. Analysis of different joints with steel members and different loading conditions has been presented. Properties of bamboo have been taken from various experimental values previously reported in literature [2], [4], [5]. The current approach is a simple and practical method which may be useful for design analysis in the near future as it also requires low computation resources. It has been applied to study 2 cases which were important for a structural application problem at hand. The problem has not been described but the cases studied with the loading conditions after considering the factor of safety have been explained in section II.C. II. THEORY The finite element analysis has been performed in the commercially available FEA tool ANSYS. The software provides the flexibility of assigning orthotropic custom material properties which is useful for the problem at hand.