Mechanical Properties and Selection of Tension Bamboo Strips Used in Structure Design Contest

Tension bamboo strips are common structural elements in the National Structure Design Contest for College Students. At present，however，the research is scarce on the scientific selection of tension bamboo strips. Therefore，mechanical experiments were performed to study the tensile properties of bamboo strips with cross-sections of 1 mm×6 mm，2 mm×2 mm and 3 mm×3 mm commonly used in structure design contest. And the impacts of moisture content，weight，number of vascular bundles and planing treatment on the ultimate tension capacity were examined. The results indicated that the tensile strength of bamboo strips increased first and then decreased as the moisture content rose，and the optimal moisture content was 14%. For untreated bamboo strips，there was a linear relationship between the ultimate tension capacity and the weight；When the weights were similar，the tension bamboo strips could be selected by the number of vascular bundles and the color of bamboo. If part of bamboo strip with sparse vascular bundles was removed by planning and grinding，the weight was reduced and the load-to-mass ratio was improved. These results may serve as references for selecting tension bamboo strips in structure design contest.