Autoclaved bamboo pulp fibre reinforced cement

This paper reports the use of bamboo fibre as a potential reinforcement for autoclaved cement building materials. At a fibre loading of 14% by mass, the autoclaved bamboo fibre reinforced cement composites have a flexural strength greater than 18 MPa and a density of about 1.3 g cm −3. However, the fracture toughness value is low, being less than 0.50 kJ m −2, due to short fibre length and high ‘fines’ content of the bamboo pulp. By screening out ‘fines’ contained in the original bamboo pulp the flexural strength values can be improved to greater than 20 MPa while fracture toughness exceeds 1.0 kJ m −2. Beaten bamboo fibre reinforced cement composites do not vary greatly in flexural strength and fracture toughness values from those of the unbeaten fibre reinforced composites. This behaviour contrasts that of cement composites reinforced with beaten and unbeaten P. radiata fibres.