Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The long-term goal of my research program is to further the state-of-the-art in using bamboo, a highly renewable and sustainable choice, as a mainstream material in modern construction. Bamboo is a fast-growing giant grass, that can reach 250 - 300 mm in diameter, with promising mechanical properties and has the potential to become a conventional material in modern construction. Not only are the mechanical properties of bamboo superior to those of most softwood timber, but also, bamboo's global use in the construction industry will decrease the risk of deforestation due to excessive use of timber. Bamboo can be harvested every three years without damaging the roots of the bamboo plant, which eliminates the need for replantation. However, until now bamboo has only been used in traditional engineering buildings in developing countries. The natural cylindrical shape of bamboo made it an undesirable choice for modern building contractors. One of the main reasons the cylindrical shape of raw bamboo has become an obstacle to its becoming a mainstream construction material is the complexity of connections in raw bamboo construction. Bamboo composite structural elements, however, can be produced in a desirable shape in combination with a proper matrix. In this project, two separate objectives will be pursued. Firstly, unprecedented bamboo-based composites using a stay-in-place cast made of timber will be fabricated and put to the test as an advanced load-bearing structural element. The wooden stay-in-place casts will provide the opportunity to fabricate the bamboo-based structural elements with rectangular cross-sections that can be more desirable for construction purposes. The majority of the cross-section will be filled with strong bamboo strips while the timber casts will provide a desirable shape for the cross-section of the bamboo composite elements. The bamboo-based long members with a rectangular cross-section have the potential to benefit from the existing conventional connections used in timber construction. In the process of fabricating the bamboo composites, we will step away from conventionally used phenolic resins and instead will assess the possibility of the use of bio-based resins such as furan-based or soy-based polymers as the matrices for the composite sections. In the second part of the project, the possibility of growing cold-hardy bamboo species that are strong and durable enough to be used for construction and can resist Canadian climates will be studied. Different cold-hardy bamboo species grow in Canada; however, they may not reach the larger cross-sectional sizes that they grow into in a warmer climate. Regardless of the size of the grown bamboo, the focus will be on the strength of the fibres of the grown bamboo, since the bamboo component in the advanced composite bamboo-based investigation in the first phase of this project will be used in the form of small-size full culms or 2mm x 4mm strips or strands.