A novel braided bamboo composite material with balanced strength and good energy absorption capacity inspired by bamboo

Engineering bamboo composite materials are widely used in construction industry. However, the impact load will inevitably affect the structural safety and service time of the engineering bamboo composite material. In this work, a braided glued laminated bamboo (BGLB) strong with balanced strength and good energy absorption capacity is developed, which was systematic characterized by tension, compression and bending tests at the angle of 0°, 45° and 90° and low-velocity impact tests. Results show that the progressive damage improves BGLB in 45° and 90° of the mechanical properties significantly compared to bamboo scrimber (BS). The absorbed energy of BGLB bending specimens increased by 55%, 1734% and 3983% more than that of BS under the angle of 0°, 45° and 90°. There is little difference between the transverse (0°) and longitudinal (90°) mechanical properties of BGLB. At the impact energy of 300 J, the specific energy absorption (SEA) of BGLB (1.07 J/g) is 15% larger than that of BS (0.93 J/g). The unique design makes BGLB to have better impact resistance and secondary load capacity than BS. The work balances the strength and good energy absorption capacity of BGLB, which can provide a new design idea for bamboo/wood engineering materials and help the development of high-strength bamboo/wood engineering materials.