Sustainable Design of a Composite Material: Slab Reinforced with Engineered Full Culm Bamboo

John Rogel Ursua and Johann Heinrich Malongo
Additional contact information
John Rogel Ursua: University of Antique, Sibalom, Antique, Philippines
Johann Heinrich Malongo: University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos, Bacolod City, Philippines

Technium, 2026, vol. 31, 658-677

Abstract: Bamboo has gained increasing attention as a renewable and environmentally sustainable construction material because of its high strength-to-weight ratio, rapid growth, and local availability. This study evaluated the feasibility of using engineered full-culm bamboo as permanent formwork and reinforcement in reinforced concrete slab systems. An experimental research design was employed using three locally available bamboo species: Bambusa blumeana, Bambusa vulgaris, and Bambusa merrilliana. The culms were treated with a borax-boric acid solution before fabrication and testing. Physical properties, including density and moisture content, and mechanical properties, including compressive, flexural, tensile, and shear strengths, were determined following applicable ASTM and ISO standards. The reinforced slab specimens were further assessed for compressive and flexural performance, cost efficiency, availability index, and waste generation ratio. Results showed that borax-boric acid treatment enhanced the mechanical properties of the bamboo species. Bambusa blumeana demonstrated superior density, moisture resistance, and flexural performance, while Bambusa merrilliana exhibited the highest compressive strength, availability index, and overall strength-to-weight ratio. Although the engineered bamboo-reinforced slabs did not achieve the performance of conventional steel-reinforced slabs, they exhibited sufficient structural capacity for selected low-load applications. The findings demonstrate that engineered full-culm bamboo is a technically feasible, cost-effective, and environmentally sustainable alternative for permanent formwork and ceiling slab systems, particularly in bamboo-rich regions.

Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://techniumscience.com/index.php/technium/article/view/13790 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tec:techni:ojs:13790

DOI: 10.47577/technium.v31i.13790

Access Statistics for this article

Technium is currently edited by Scurtu Ionut Cristian

More articles in Technium from Technium Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ana Maria Golita ().