Experimental investigation on chemically treated bamboo reinforced concrete beams and columns

•Experiments are conducted to study feasibility of bamboo as reinforcement in concrete.•Varieties of adhesives are used for treatment of bamboo to study their effect on bond strength.•Tests are performed to reveal behavior of bamboo reinforced concrete members under loading.•These tests suggest that bamboo with proper treatment has potential to substitute steel as reinforcement. Concrete is often reinforced with steel bars to negate its weak tension carrying capacity. However, due to higher cost and non-renewability of steel, nowadays attempts are made to provide a low-cost sustainable alternative by using locally available material. The feasibility for usage of bamboo as reinforcement in concrete is evaluated through a series of experimental investigations in the present study. First of all, tensile test of locally procured bamboo strips are conducted for evaluation of its ultimate strength and engineering properties. Varieties of adhesives such as Tapecrete P-151, Sikadur 32 Gel, Araldite and Anti Corr RC have been used for the treatment bamboo to study their effect on bond strength at the interface of the bamboo concrete composite. From the comparative study the most suitable adhesive has been selected and used further to cast bamboo reinforced beams and columns. The axial compression and transverse loading tests are performed on plain, steel and bamboo reinforced columns to reveal the load carrying capacity, lateral deflection, and failure mode pattern. Also, two-point load test is performed on beams to study their behavior under bending. All these tests suggest that bamboo with proper treatment has the potential to substitute steel as reinforcement in beam and column members.