Strength of two-way Semantan Bamboo reinforced concrete slabs

Abstract

Steel has been widely known as the essential material for reinforcement. However, many researches have been conducted in order to find an alternative sustainable material to replace steel. In this study, bamboo has been chosen to replace steel as reinforcement is introduced as one of the alternative material for reinforcement of concrete. The Semantan Bamboo (Gigantochloa Scortechinii) splint with a size of 20 mm x 10 mm (Thickness) was used as the main reinforcement. Three samples of two-way concrete slabs were prepared with a dimension of 1200 mm x 1200 mm x 100 mm. One sample will be constructed without reinforcement, while the remaining two samples will be reinforced with 1.5%, 2.5%, 3.5% and 4.5% of bamboo. All the samples will undergo concentrated punch loads and control slab without reinforcement. The results show that the maximum punching shears that the slabs can sustain more 60 kN. The slabs fail by the cracking of concrete at the bottom of the slab under the concentrated load.