Flexural behaviour of glulam bamboo beams reinforced with near-surface mounted steel bars

In order to improve the structural performance of the bamboo used in civil engineering applications, this paper proposes that near-surface mounted steel bars could be used to strengthen glulam bamboo beams. A total of five glulam bamboo beams, one unreinforced and four reinforced, were constructed and tested to be failed under a four-point loading system, and the flexural behaviour was investigated by comparing the differences. The experimental results show that the load-bearing capacity and cross-sectional rigidity of the reinforced beams were enhanced significantly compared to those of the unreinforced beam. It was also found that the near-surface mounted steel bars could share the tensile stress of bamboo beams and work effectively during the loading process. Moreover, the plane-section assumption of the cross-sectional strain distribution along the height was verified and an analytical model proposed to predict the cross-sectional rigidity of the reinforced bamboo beams. Finally, the predicted load–displacement curves agreed favourably with the experimental curves.