Flexural failure mechanism of bamboo composite plates with different construction technologies and tectonic patterns

To investigate the failure mechanism of bamboo fiber reinforced composite (BFRC) plates with different construction technologies and tectonic patterns, flexural experiments were performed. The flexural property of the parallel bamboo strand lumbers (PBSL) is better than that of the glued laminated bamboo (GLB), where the cracking load is increased by 141 % at most and the peak load is increased by 57 % at most. The orthogonal structure for the cross-laminated bamboo (CLB) improves the flexural property to a certain extent by inhibiting the initial cracking whether it is PBSL or GLB, and the peak load is increased by 9.83 % and 11.40 %, respectively. The residual bearing capacity of the PBSL is better than that of the CLB, the PBSL can basically maintain half of the ultimate bearing capacity while the damage factor of CLB is as high as 0.84 when the structure is damaged, revealing that the orthogonal layup structure results in weak interlayer interface after explosion. Orthotropic plate theory and composite failure criteria were proposed and consistently predicted the cracking load and the ultimate load. It is found that matrix fracture controls the cracking load, while fiber fracture determines the ultimate load.