Development of the Bamboo Test Kit-in-a-Backpack

This thesis documents the fabrication and use of the ‘Bamboo Test-Kit-in-a-Backpack’. The ‘kit’ \ud is intended for rapid in-the-field assessment of bamboo material properties. Presently the kit \ud supports full-culm compression, longitudinal shear (‘bowtie’ test), edge bearing, and culm \ud flexural tests. Additionally, it could be further adapted for pin shear tests and a number of small \ud clear specimen tests. The thesis documents proof of concept and validation testing ensuring that \ud results from the test kit are comparable to those of a standard testing machine. A key objective of \ud this work is to endure that tests and sample preparation are practical and simple to conduct on a\ud remote construction site. One critical issue of test specimen tolerance – permitted out-of-squareness \ud of specimen ends is also addressed