Bamboo Reinforced Panels for Fence Walls

The construction industry consumes large quantity of steel and emits carbon leading to global warming, which is a dampener for sustainable growth all over the world. As an alternative to steel, bamboo has been tried as reinforcement in different countries (e. g., Indonesia, China, Malaysia, India) on a limited scale only. Presently, fence walls erected with precast steel reinforced concrete (SRC) panels are widely in demand due to saving in time and simple craftsmanship when compared to conventional fence walls erected with materials such as stone, brick or barbed wire. Preparation of SRC panels has become a cottage industry due to a higher demand. However, these panels are prepared without adhering to any specification or standards. This work aims at exploring the methods of adopting bamboo as an alternative to steel for erecting fence walls. As many as thirty (30) bamboo reinforced concrete (BRC) slabs of dimension 1000 mm x 300 mm x 50 mm (length: height: thickness) were cast in the laboratory adopting M20 mix. Fifteen (15) slabs each were cast with (i) bambusa balcooa and (ii) bambusa polymorpha species as reinforcement with a pretreatment using coal tar creosote. The slabs were tested using (a) ultrasonic instrument to assess the quality of concrete used and (b) universal testing machine to establish the load versus deflection characteristics. As a comparative study these tests were repeated on precast, SRC panels, procured from a locally manufacturing unit. The test results reveal that the quality of concrete in BRC slabs was better than that of the SRC slabs. The BRC slabs with either type of species failed at approximately 50% of the magnitude of load taken by SRC slabs at failure. The deflection and the associated crack width also followed the same trend. The cost analysis performed indicates that BRC slabs are cheaper by 30 to 35% in comparison to SRC panels. Therefore, it is recommended to adopt BRC slabs for erecting fence walls and barns leading to benefits such as, sustainable growth of the environment, wider cultivation of bamboo species and more rural employment.