Investigation into the effects of various processing treatments on the flexural performance of carbon fiber reinforced polymer-bamboo scrimber composites

ABSTRACT

Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates can significantly improve the flexural performance of the bamboo scrimber. This study evaluated the effects of three fabrication methods (one-time hot pressing, secondary hot pressing, and secondary cold pressing) on the flexural performance of CFRP-bamboo scrimber composites. Four-point bending experiments and theoretical analysis were conducted to study the failure modes, flexural performance, load-displacement relationships and strain curves over time of CFRP-bamboo scrimber composites. Besides a theoretical model was proposed to describe the flexural stiffness of CFRP-bamboo scrimber composites. The results indicated that the CFRP-bamboo scrimber composite specimens demonstrated four failure modes depending on the treatment methods. Overall, the static flexural modulus of the one-time hot pressed specimens was superior (up to 1.93 times that of the untreated bamboo scrimber specimen), and the static flexural strength of the secondary cold pressing specimens was superior (up to 3.58 times greater than that of the untreated bamboo scrimber specimen), although neither the static flexural modulus nor the static flexural strength of the secondary hot pressing specimens was satisfactory. Finally, it was illustrated that the theoretical models, established to describe the load-displacement, could accurately predict the experimental results.

KEYWORDS:

• Bamboo scrimber
• carbon fibre reinforced polymer
• flexural performance
• Load-displacement
• Load-carrying capacity

Acknowledgments

The project is supported by Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (No 2020JJ5986), Hunan Provincial Department of Education Project (No 19B591), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No 2021M690768) and The science and technology innovation program of Hunan Province (No 2020RC4049) .

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability

The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province [2020JJ5986]; China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No 2021M690768)..

Notes on contributors

Caimei Liu

Caimei Liu (1985), female, doctoral student, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, research direction: bamboo-wood composite structure.

Xizhi Wu

Xizhi Wu (1985), male, postdoctoral fellow, associate professor, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, research direction: bamboo-wood composite structure, machine vision.