VOA常速英语:Scientists Test Bamboo as Building Material

Helped by one of his students, professor Kent Harries is testing a bamboo pole for its radio load,how much of a pressure or wave it can withstand.

Building codes everywhere require strict standardization of tests for all materials, such as timber or concrete.But tests for bamboo have not been standardized even though the strength of at least three species is comparable to steel.

“They are remarkably strong which are marked, the resilient, it’s optimized to be a very tall, obviously bamboo material,something like this, might grow 20 meters.and it supports its own weight,and of course it also supports huge wind loads in what knocks over that.”

Bamboo is widely used as food for pandas, for forniture or engineer products, such as plywood, glue laminated and cross laminated timber.But not much outside its native growing area, mostly because of its round cross section. But there are other reasons too.

“With this viewed in much of the world as well bamboo is for poor people, and so there is that mentality that we are trying to get over.”

Bamboo is suitable for construction (that) requires significantly less resources than comparable timber.It’s highly sustainable, with a harvest cycle of about three years, while soft wood requires about ten, and hard wood more than 30 years.

“If we standardize it, if we provide essentially documentation as test methods which the engineers can hang their hat on,we bring the material into the mainstream.”

Harries says the standardized bamboo poles could be used in multiple stock columns vertically and for floors and roofs horizontally.In many countries, they are already used for wall panel structures.