Finite Element Modelling of Bamboo Reinforced Concrete Beams

Abstract

In the traditional sense, steel has mainly been used as the reinforcement for structural elements. Nonetheless, concerns over its cost and availability have been raised especially in developing countries such as Ghana. Although bamboo has been employed as a construction material in several developing countries, its use has been limited due to the uncertainties associated with its properties and behaviour. In this paper, the laboratory results of two different Self-Compacting Concrete beams with beam IDs; SM1.4 BI and SM1.4 BII having varying shear span-to-depth ratios and percentage reinforcements were verified with a nonlinear finite computational platform (ABAQUS). The 2m long beams were modelled with each type of beam dimension reinforced with 1.2% and 1.5% amount of longitudinal bamboo reinforcement. The load-deflection behaviours of the models were the main benchmarks for the verification. The failure loads for the models placed the accuracies at 93.52% and 104.69% whilst the ultimate central deflections were 94.26%. and 102.37%. In conclusion, the finite element models were found to be slightly stiffer than the experimental beams during the initial stages of loading. Nevertheless, the entire load-deformation response of the model produced, compares well with the response from the experimental study. This gives confidence in the use of the ABAQUS software and the model developed.