A senior engineer of the Myanmar Engineering Society (MES) told BS News that Burmese engineers have successfully invented a new concrete techonlogy known as "Bambo-reinforced Concrete Technoogy". In this technology, bamboo-poles will be used in replacement of the iron-bars that had previously been applied for reinforcement of the concrete buildings. He said it will reduce a lot of cost for not using the iron-bars. Rangoon City Development Committee declares that all buildings that will be constructed in Rangoon starting from 1 January 2011 must apply this new technology as part of the austerity plans of Burma.
English Version of "Burma Strange News" reflecting the current affairs of Burma presented in post-modernism point of view.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
New Reinforced Concrete Technology applied in Burma
A senior engineer of the Myanmar Engineering Society (MES) told BS News that Burmese engineers have successfully invented a new concrete techonlogy known as "Bambo-reinforced Concrete Technoogy". In this technology, bamboo-poles will be used in replacement of the iron-bars that had previously been applied for reinforcement of the concrete buildings. He said it will reduce a lot of cost for not using the iron-bars. Rangoon City Development Committee declares that all buildings that will be constructed in Rangoon starting from 1 January 2011 must apply this new technology as part of the austerity plans of Burma.
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Actually, I believe bamboo has been used to reinforce concrete in many places around the world since--well--the invention of concrete. I've seen an article that said two U.S. Navy engineers worked out the math around its tensile strength a little after WWII, so any architect or engineer should be able to engineer a structure to the local building codes.
ReplyDeleteApparently bamboo has tensile strength comparable to some grades of steel. It will not rot until moisture penetrates the concrete, when steel would begin to rust and break the concrete apart; if you treat bamboo with a not-too-nasty wood preservative, it might outlast steel, in concrete. And burying bamboo in concrete sequesters carbon; making a ton of steel from virgin ore puts >5 tons of carbon into the atmosphere.
I'm told that it's absolutely possible to get bamboo-reinforced concrete approved by the building authorities here in the U.S.--or at least in Portland, Oregon--if you can do the engineering. We're designing for the magnitude nine earthquake we expect, here in the PNW, any old time now. If bamboo is an adequate reinforcement for concrete here, it should be useful almost anywhere.
Grow and process it locally, and bamboo should be far less expensive than steel. Now what we need is a better way of making concrete; I've also read that making Portland cement takes 1/6 of the energy generated in the U.S.(!?), and that it's mostly from coal, and as dirty as it can be. But--at least for building sustainable homes--bamboo is a good place to start.