Bamboo
Bamboo stick talk
After further discussion with fellow group members, the idea of using bamboo as the structural member material was brought up. Having little to no experience with bamboo, I decided to see for myself if this material could potentially be used in our pavilion. After a bit of shopping around at my local hardware store, Bunnings, I ended up buying some bamboo to get a feel for the material and to understand it a bit better. I bought two different varieties, bamboo canes ($7.40 for 10), which had a diameter of approximately 10mm and bamboo stake ($4.65 each) which had a diameter of approximately 20mm-30mm. Here are some of my observations with this material:
_due to its organic/unprocessed nature, there are some imperfections that come with the material, it has a tapering cross-sectional diameter (bamboo stake diameter ranged from 20–30mm) and is not perfectly straight
_From the quick testing I conducted, bamboo canes (10mm dia.) are very flexible, the bamboo stake (20mm dia.) are very rigid able to sustain a lot of force with any sign of struggle and slight flex
_Wood workability is consistent with other wood types, slightly harder to cut/drill.
The next stage would be testing this material with computerised machinery. I’ve been told by fellow peers that it is possible to maybe use the 3 point bend test machine in the engineering faculty on campus.
