EWB-UK & EAP Education Conference 2012 Changing Course: The Global Dimension to Engineering Education 26th March

2012

Can bamboo be a suitable replacement for steel in the use of gabions? George Smart
Coventry University

Key Words: Bamboo, Gabions, Civil Engineering, Retaining structures

Introduction
Gabions are used for a wind range of uses around the world; however the most common material for these is galvanised steel. Steel uses a lot of energy to produce, and also is not a sustainable solution. When used in remote communities, for example Practical Actions project in Chitwan, Nepal; the steel gabions cannot be constructed to as high standard as if they were by a specialist contractor, Noble (1997) also states that the gabions can be made locally by hand although this is physically demanding for the people doing the work. Swedish Architect Ingemar Saevfors designed an alternative to the steel gabion, using bamboo. After further research on this design, it became clear that this design was better suited for the use of erosion protection. Bamboo is a sustainable and widely available material, and therefore using Saevfors inspiration, this project looks at other bamboo gabion design possibilities, especially in the use of retaining structures.

Research
Retaining structures are used to bring greater stability to dangerous slopes, or to support existing landslides (Zruba and Mencl 1982: 218). Retaining walls in the UK are designed to BS Eurocode 1997 (British standards 2004). This document suggests there are three types of retaining walls, gravity, embedded, and composite. Gabion walls usually fall under the category of gravity walls, Saevfors design on the other hand, is a composite design. Using the mass of the walls, along with soil nails, this can be seen in figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1 (Not to scale) (Saevfors 2010)

Research Poster Paper Author: George Smart Institution: Coventry University

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EWB-UK & EAP Education Conference 2012 Changing Course: The Global Dimension to Engineering Education 26th March 2012

One of the advantages of using gabions in retaining structures is that the fill material provides gaps for water movement; therefore the occurrence of water pressure is removed (McCarthy 1997: 652). As mentioned, retaining structures are designed to BS EC7 in the UK; however gabion specialists, Hy-ten (2011), state that they use BS 8002 as well. This document has more guidelines and information for gabions, giving information about mesh material, assembly, fill material, design and construction. Practical Action (Noble 1997) used gabions for spurs and dykes for flood protection in Chitwan, Nepal. They used gabions here as they were felt to be the best structural option, however Noble (1997), does state that although the gabions can be made locally by hand, that this is very physically demanding for the people that do the work. Also, by using the easier to construct rectangular mesh, there is a tendency for the gabion to unravel, even is a single wire is broken, resulting in premature failure of the structure. Saevfors design, the Eco Gabion, is made from a 6-7cm diameter, pole of bamboo. The bamboo has 2-3cm wide slats cut, but leaves both end nodes intact, these nodes are then tied with wire to prevent splitting. The pole is then compressed to create a spool shaped basket; a length of bamboo is then split, to create 2-3cm wide lengths, which are then tied at a 45o angle to create the basket (Saevfors 2011). All of the bamboo is treated in a boric acid solution, and then dipped in waste motor oil which provides a water repellent coating. Saevfors (2011) expresses the environmental concerns with this treatment, but according to the installation in Timor Letse, the released quantities observed were minimal for the motor oil. The boric acid provides protection from insects and decay, it is inexpensive, low toxic and not harmful to people or domestic animals and has a very limited effect on plants (Ahmed et al. 2004). The gabions are then installed as in figure 1.1. Bamboo is seen as some as the vegetable steel (Bamboo Costa Rica n.d.), this is down to its mechanical properties. A bamboo species called, Guadua angustifolia Kunth, has the following values (Trujillo 2011): Compressive strength parallel to grain: 28 N/mm2 Tensile strength parallel to grain: 90 N/mm2 Tensile strength perpendicular to grain: 0.1 N/mm2 Bending strength: 46 N/mm2 Shear strength: 4-5 N/mm2 Modulus of elasticity in compression: 15 000 N/mm2 Modulus of elasticity in bending: 11 800 N/mm2 Unit weight: 6 kN/m3 When the compressive strength to weight ratios are compared, for Guadua angustifolia Kunth it is 4.67, for C30 concrete it is 1.25 and for 275 grade steel it is 3.57 (Trujillo 2011). From these properties it can be seen that bamboo is very good in compression parallel to the grain, but very poor perpendicular. This poor property of bamboo needs to be considered considerably when designing gabions.

Intended Course of Action

The next stage of the project is designing a gabion, and constructing it. By doing this I can try and design a gabion as close to design guidelines as possible. Also by constructing it, I can see how easy the gabion is to build, and change my design accordingly. If I find I have time and the facilities to do so, I will test the gabion; however I need to look closer into what kind of tests I will do.

Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge David Trujillo, my project supervisor for his great help and support through the project.

Research Poster Paper Author: George Smart Institution: Coventry University

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EWB-UK & EAP Education Conference 2012 Changing Course: The Global Dimension to Engineering Education 26th March 2012

References Ahmed, B., French, J., Vinden, P. (2004) Evaluation of borate formulations as wood preservatives to control subterranean termites in Australia. Holzforschung (58), 446-454 Bamboo Costa Rica (n.d.) Bamboo poles [online] available from <http://www.bamboocostarica.com/Bamboo-Poles.html> [13/12/2011] British Standards Institution (2004) Eurocode 7. Geotechnical design. General rules. BS EN 1997-1:2004. London: British Standards Institution Hy-Ten (n.d.) Welded Mesh Gabions Retaining Wall Design Guide [online] available from < http://www.hytengabions.co.uk/technical_publications/design_guide.pdf> [5/12/2011] McCarthy, D. (1997) Essentials of Soil Mechanics and Foundations: Basic Geotechnics. London: Prentice-Hall Noble, N. (2007) Spurs and Dykes for Flood Protection [online] available from < http://practicalaction.org/spurs-anddykes-for-flood-proection> [13/12/2011] Saevfors, I. (2010) Engineering Solutions in Practice: Erosion Protection [online] available from <http://www.saevfors.se/P4_Erosion%20control /texts/Engineering%20solutions%20in%20practice.pdf> [13/12/2011] Trujillo, D. (2011) Bamboo Structures. Lecture slides. Coventry: Coventry University. Zruba and Mencl (1982) Landslides and Their Control. Oxford: Elsevier Scientific

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