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Use of Bamboo Strand Plywood in Box Beam Construction

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  Paper number  054120,  2005 ASAE Annual Meeting . (doi: 10.13031/2013.19513) @2005
Authors:   Daniel P. Hindman, Zhiyuan Lin, Joseph Howard
Keywords:   bamboo strand plywood, box beams, bamboo, beam analysis equations

As more engineers and architects wish to create structures using environmentally green materials, resource providers are challenged to locate novel materials. One possible material source is bamboo strand plywood (BSP), which can be produced in a 3-5 year rotation, compared to a 20 year rotation for softwood lumber products. This paper discusses the use of bamboo strip plywood for use as the web members of plywood box beams. Standard ASTM testing methods were employed to measure the strength and stiffness properties of BSP. Experimental testing compared box beams with BSP webs to box beams with conventional oriented strandboard webs. This limited testing found that the BSP web box beam carried approximately 70% more load than the OSB box beams with both beams containing identical flange material.. Current box beam prediction equations were oversimplified and did not produce reasonable estimates for either web material.

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