h a l f b a k e r yAlas, poor spelling!
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Those of us with any background in construction have probably heard of parallams, also called parallel-strand lumber. They're long strips of wood shaved from the whole tree, formed up and glued under high pressure into finished forms. Weakness inherent in the wood are spread, harmlessly in small doses,
throughout the finished beam, so the finished strength of the beam is constant throughout the piece.
It makes sense to transfer this technology to bamboo, which has considerable strength, is cultivated for construction purposes already, and would yield even less waste while growing back much, much faster.
Tensile and compressive strengths aren't bad; possible necessary increases in member size would be offset by the extremely short regrowth cycle of bamboo.
While we're at it, perfectly good plywood is made from plain ol' straw here in the US, why not try that for a parallam?
Plyboo
http://www.plyboo.com/
I love their products! [Machiavelli, Jun 13 2005]
pest problem
Giant_20Panda_20Army
Good luck shooing these boys away from the building.. [ConsulFlaminicus, Jun 14 2005]
(?) Bamtex bamboo and palm flooring
http://www.bamtex.com/photo_gallery.htm
Some photos [bristolz, Jun 14 2005]
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+. Inexpensive and environmentally friendly alternative. I've added a link for bamboo plywood and stuff. |
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Thanks, Mach. I hadn't seen that one. |
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Those of us without any background in construction have, however, heard of the 'Giant Panda Army' [link] which may be distracted from vital peace-keeping missions by these tempting, bamboo-based structures. |
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<ot>I was told, by someone who claims to have been there, that the Hong Kong Hilton, at the time the tallest building in Asia (around 20 storeys, I think), was built using bamboo scaffolding.</ot> |
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I've been in construction for most of my adult life and I have never heard of Plyboo. Cool link. |
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it seems this exists already, but Welcome to the Halfbakery anywho.! |
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What [dentworth] said. Welcome to the HB! |
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We have bamboo "hardwood" floors in certain rooms in our house. They're quite beautiful and very durable. |
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Angel, I've seen those scaffolds: I won't swear to it but I'm pretty sure the scaffolds are largely supported by building structure already in place. It is impressive though to see a modern high-rise going up inside twenty stories of lashed-together scaffolding. A poetic juxtaposition. |
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I've seen blokes working on bamboo scaffolds in India too. Bloomin' hairy it looks. You wouldn't get me up there. |
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+ Good simply from the point of view that bamboo grows like topsy, so would be an easily renewable resource. Perhaps another idea might be the use of bamboo fibres to make a fine honeycomb structure in cross-section, for stronger lightweight beams. |
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I found sites that indicated Bamboo PSL's were made and tested, but I can't find very much else about them. |
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+ Maybe corn and canestalks could be thrown in as well. |
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An engineering firm once set out to demonstrate how much stronger steel and concrete beams are when compared to bamboo. |
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After several embarrasing attempts they 'discovered' that bamboo is an incredibly strong, light, semi-flexing construction material -- something that had been known for eons. |
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