Developments in Structural Design

Standards with Bamboo

David Trujillo – MSc DIC CEng MIStructE

Senior Lecturer / Chair of the INBAR Task Force for Bamboo
Construction
 Content

• Origin of codes/standards
• Code and standard development of bamboo: a brief history
• Current developments within ISO and INBAR Task Force
– ISO 19624 Bamboo structures — Grading of bamboo culms — Basic principles
and procedures
– ISO 22157 Bamboo structures — Determination of physical and mechanical
properties of bamboo culms — Test methods
– ISO 22156 Bamboo – Structural Design
– ISO/NP 23478 – Bamboo structures — Glued laminated bamboo — Test methods
for determination of physical and mechanical properties
• Final thoughts and invitation
 Origin of codes/standards
• Codes? Standards?
• Codes and standards for bamboo (Gatóo et al. 2014)
 Origin of codes/standards

Timeline:
• 1824 – invention of Portland Cement
• 1830 – invention of the I-beam
• 1856 – development of the Bessemer process (steel)
• 1857 – first rolled steel rails
• 1880s – First iron and steel-frame high-rise buildings
• 1890s – first Reinforced Concrete (RC) frame buildings
• c1925 – welding of steel
 Origin of
codes/standards
• 1892 - Francois Hennebique
patented a form of RC
• High quality control on site
• Sold licences for system
• 1899 - >3,000 projects used
the system
• 1909 - ≈ 20,000 projects & 62
offices worldwide
• Many other contractors had
their own system
• Eventually RC
codes/standards emerged
• These broke the monopoly
• It allowed authorities to check
designs for safety
 Origin of codes/standards
• Standards provide a consensus about best practice
• Codes/Standards collected three types of information:
– “Properties of materials, including the quality of their
manufacture;
– the various loads that building structures should be designed
to carry;
– codes of design practice that provided suitable methods for
designing the various structural elements of buildings –
columns, beams, floors and shear walls – and the connections
between them.”(Addis, 2007)
• Committees of code writers typically consist of representatives
of:
– Product manufacturers,
– Structural designers,
– Researchers
Development of codes and standards is a slow and lengthy process, it
requires a compromise between the parties and needs to be underpinned
by extensive experimental research, which is expensive.

Global market for different materials in billions of USD

$900.00

$800.00

$700.00

$600.00

$500.00

$400.00

$300.00

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$100.00

$0.00
Steel Cement Timber Bamboo
 Code and standard development of
bamboo: a brief history

design values
Derivation of

Connections

Shear walls
Mechanical
properties

Columns
included
Species

Grading
Beams

/ joints
Design code/standard Year Country

AC 162 2000 Calif., USA 0       

NSR-98 2002 Colombia 1       Some
(simple) (Details)

ISO 22156:2004 2004 International 0       

(Test)

NBC 2004 India

20 &       Some
16 (few) (Details)
NSR-10 2010 Colombia 1       Some

E.100 2012 Peru 1       Some

(Details) (Details)

Andean Standard 2015 International 1       Some

(simple) (simple) (Details)

NEC – SE – GUADÚA 2016 Ecuador 1       Some

(Details) (Details)
2017 México 3
 Engineered ‘Bahareque’
Onto a bamboo frame apply Apply a cement mortar render
bamboo strips or mesh onto mesh or strips

Images: Webb (2015)

Engineered ‘bahareque’
school
Engineered ‘bahareque’ school
 Bahareque in the Philippines

Engineered ‘bahareque’ has been

adopted in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador,
Mexico, Costa Rica and The Philippines.
Current developments within ISO and
INBAR Task Force
ISO Technical Committee 165 Working
Group 12
• In September 2013, At the annual
meeting of TC 165 ‘Timber Structures’
the development of bamboo standards
was reactivated.
• Working Group 12 – ‘Structural Use of
Bamboo’ of ISO TC 165 was created.
• Members across: Colombia, Ecuador,
Ethiopia, Indonesia, Malaysia, China,
UK, Germany, Australia and USA.
31ST ANNUAL MEETING OF ISO TC165 TIMBER STRUCTURES
4-8 September, 2017 in Vienna
 INBAR Task Force
• In 2015, INBAR launched the Bamboo Construction Task Force.
• The Task Force “coordinates the activities of international
research institutes and commercial companies interested in the
structural uses of bamboo”
• It does so by linking individuals who are experts in the field.
• The intention is to pool and coordinate the isolated and disparate
efforts occurring throughout the world.

Delegates at ‘Bamboo in the Urban Environment’

Symposium at Pittsburgh, USA, 2016
 INBAR Task Force
• Amongst the objectives of the Task Force are:
• “Help drive and refine the development of new international standards
on the structural uses of bamboo and review and update existing
international standards…”

Delegates at ‘Bamboo in the Urban

Environment’ Symposium at Bogor,
Indonesia, 2017
 INBAR Task Force members
Task Force Coordinator:
Liu Kewei Coordinator of Global Bamboo Construction Programme at INBAR
Task Force Chair:
David Trujillo Coventry University UK
Andrew Lawrence Arup UK
Arjan Van Der Vegte Moso The Netherlands
Andry Widyowijatnoko Intistut Teknologi Bangdun Indonesia
Bhavna Sharma University of Bath UK
Denamo Addissie Addis Abada University Ethiopia
Edwin Zea Escamilla ETH Zurich Switzerland
Greg Smith University of British Columbia Canada
Haitao Li Nanjing Forestry Univeristy China
Hector Archila Santos Amphibia BASE UK
Juan Francisco Correal Daza Universidad de los Andes Colombia
Kent Harries University of Pittsburgh USA
Luis Felipe López Base Bahay The Philippines
Martin Tam Able Mart Limited Hong Kong
Mateo Gutierrez Gonzalez Univeristy of Queensland Australia
Mauricio Cardenas Laverde Politécnico de Milano Italy
Michael Ramage Univeristy of Cambridge UK
Nripal Adhikary ABARI Nepal
Ramesh Chaturvedi Retired India
Rodolfo Lorenzo UCL UK
Romildo D. Toledo Filho Universidad Federal do Rio de Janeiro Brazil
Sebastian Kaminski Arup UK
Verónica María Correa Giraldo Kaltia / Bambuterra México
Xu Qingfeng Shangai Research Institute of Building Sciences China
Yann Barnet Universidad de San Martín Peru
INBAR Task Force publications
INBAR Task Force collaborations
 ISO 19624 Bamboo structures — Grading of bamboo
culms — Basic principles and procedures

• Grading is:
• “(…) the process of sorting every piece of
bamboo in a sample into grades according
to defined selection criteria. The criteria
identify dimensional, visual, geometric,
mechanical and/or physical properties that
reflect the bamboo’s mechanical strength
or structural capacity and may affect the
utility of the product.”
Contents
Contents
 Ways to improve grading: Linear mass
(image not in standard)
18

16

14 y = 3.173x - 1.5639
R² = 0.866
12
M0 (kNm)

10

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
q (kg/m)
 Ways to improve grading: flexural stiffness
(image not in standard)
18

16
y = 7E-11x + 0.9585
14 R² = 0.8655

12
M0 (kNm)

10

0
0 5E+10 1E+11 1.5E+11 2E+11
EIm,s (Nmm2)
Low-cost measurement of flexural
stiffness (EI)
 ISO 22157 Bamboo structures — Determination of
physical and mechanical properties of bamboo culms —
Test methods

• Replaces ISO 22157-1:2004

• Removes ISO 22157-2:2004
• Removes shrinkage test
• Incorporates two tests
• Clarifies other tests
 ISO 22157 Bamboo structures — Determination of
physical and mechanical properties of bamboo culms —
Test methods

Two new tests:

- Tension perpendicular
to fibres
- Bending
perpendicular to
fibres
ISO 22156 Bamboo – Structural Design
• Update to ISO 22156:2004
• Due 2022
• Objectives:
– To be the most comprehensive and modern structural
design standard for bamboo in the world,
– Push bamboo engineering forward and try to close the gap
between bamboo and the other materials,
– To draw from experience and expertise from across the
globe,
– Serve as the template for all other bamboo codes.
ISO 22156 Bamboo – Structural Design

Features: Bamboo specific

• Methods of design: considerations:
– Allowable Stress Design • Susceptibility to splitting
– Load and Resistance Factor • Durability & preservation
Design (Limit State)
• Redundancy of members
• Approaches:
• Maintenance, Inspectability
– On the basis of stresses (as a
and Replacement
material)
– On the basis of capacities (as
a product)
• Allows:
– Experience from previous
generations
– Design by testing
 ISO 22156 Bamboo – Structural Design
Includes:
• Provides guidance about
• Design of
how to model,
– Beams
• Includes Seismic Force
– Columns (Ylinen)
Reduction Factor for
– Tension member
Bamboo Structures
• Principles for the design of:
– Most R = 1.25
– Connections
– Bahareque R = 2
– Trusses
• For connections gives:
– Shear walls
– Design philosophy
• Provides methods to derive
– Requires thought for yield
design values loads, elastic stiffness and
• Does not contain ductility.
mechanical properties – Robustness against splitting
ISO 22156 Bamboo – Structural Design

Links to other ISO standards: It proposes a way to design

certain types of dowel connections
• ISO 12122 for characteristic
values,
• ISO 19624 for grading,
• ISO 22157 for testing,
• ISO 21581 for testing of
shear walls,
• ISO 16670 for connection
testing,
• ISO TR 21141 for analysis
of connection tests,
 ISO/NP 23478 – Bamboo structures — Glued laminated
bamboo — Test methods for determination of physical
and mechanical properties
• Since 2015 the TF has
deliberated about standards
for Engineered Bamboo
Products (EBPs), as these
could potentially enter the
structural market.
• First step is knowing how to
test them.
• The first product to be studied
is ‘glued laminated bamboo’
 Other standardization work
• In 2015, ISO TC 296 Bamboo and Rattan was created
• Structural aspects remain under TC 165, because of the
importance that the committee understands structural safety.
 Final thoughts

• Development of standards/codes is a process that requires a lot

of experimental backing, as well as expertise.
• There are very few structural engineers in the world who have
experience and knowledge about bamboo.
• There are no large funders. So we need to be efficient.
• We need to pool expertise and resources, as well as coordinate
experimentation.
 An invitation

• Please use the standards we have developed,

develop them further, criticise them,
• Please join our work in developing the other two
standards.
• Many thanks.
• Any questions?