This work presents recent research results concerning the bamboo Guadua angustifolia carried out at the Pontificia Universidade Catolica, Rio de Janeiro, in which the physical, mechanical and meso-structural properties of the whole bamboo culms were determined. The main objective of this study is to make it possible for professionals to use bamboo more frequently as a structural element. The obtained results allow the engineers and architects to choose for their projects the required dimensions such as diameter, thickness and internodal distance, bending stresses, maximum tensile, compression and shearing stresses. The changing of the volumetric fraction along the bamboo thickness and their mechanical properties along the total length of the studied bamboo culms are presented.
mechanical properties; physical properties; Guadua angustifolia
