The Influence of Media Treatments on Color Changes, Dimensional Stability, and Cracking Behavior of Bamboo Scrimber

Jingpeng Li,Hui Yu,Danjing Ren,Fan Guo,Jun Xu,Yuhe Chen,Zaixing Wu

doi:10.1155/2018/6068589

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of media treatments on color changes, dimensional stability, and cracking behavior of bamboo scrimber, which has many applications in construction. The bamboo scrimber specimens comprised bamboo bundles with a low molecular weight phenol formaldehyde resin which were manufactured via a cold-in and cold-out hot-pressing process. Small clear specimens were sampled and treated under ten different conditions: water immersion at 25°C, 63°C, and 100°C; oil immersion at 100°C and 150°C; air drying at 63°C, 100°C, and 150°C; and infrared drying at 100°C and 150°C. Then, tests were conducted to determine the color changes, dimensional stability, and cracking behavior of the bamboo scrimbers. The results showed that the bamboo scrimber specimens became darker after all treatment conditions, especially the oil treatments and infrared drying. The color of the oil-treated bamboo scrimbers was found to be more homogenous than the others. The dimensional stability of the bamboo scrimbers was more or less influenced by the water treatments, air drying, and infrared drying, and the oil-treated bamboo scrimbers were relatively stable. Moreover, during the 4-hour treatments, cracks were found in the bamboo scrimbers after air drying at 150°C or infrared drying at 100°C or 150°C.

Highlights

Bamboo scrimbers are increasingly explored as a material with significant potential for construction applications [1]
The present study investigates the influences of media treatments, such as water immersion, oil immersion, air drying, and infrared drying, on color changes, dimensional stability, and cracking behavior of bamboo scrimbers
The present work focused on the influence of media treatments such as water, oil, air drying, and infrared drying on color changes, dimensional stability, and cracking behavior of bamboo scrimbers

Summary

Introduction

Bamboo scrimbers are increasingly explored as a material with significant potential for construction applications [1]. Compared with other bamboo-based composites, bamboo scrimbers have received an increasing amount of attention due to their higher utilization ratio and excellent physical and mechanical properties, which have extensive applications in flooring, furniture, buildings, and the civil engineering field. Sharma et al [5] studied the mechanical properties of two types of commercially available products—bamboo scrimber and laminated bamboo sheets—and compared these to that of timber and engineered timber products. They found that both bamboo products exhibited comparable mechanical properties to other structural materials such as timber and raw bamboo.

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