Potentials of Nigerian Bamboos for Use as Soil Reinforcement

Abstract

Five bamboo samples taken from five different villages in Lapai Local Government of Niger State were tested for compression, bending and tension. One of the bamboos was then used as reinforcement in a clay soil, to evaluate its effect on the bearing capacity of the soil. It was observed that, though, the bending strength and compressive strength of the tested bamboos are lower than that of other bamboos studied from other part of the world, their tensile strength compete favorably with those of the others reported in literature. The clay soil used in the study classified under A-7-6 subgroup according to AASHTO soil classification system and based on mineralogical test result, contains mainly kaolinite as clay mineral. The bearing capacity was found to increase from 435 kN/m2 at 0 layer to 600 kN/m2 at 2 layers of the bamboo reinforcement, after which the values reduced to 4395 kN/m2 at 5 layers. Two layers of the bamboo reinforcement is therefore the number of layers that gave effective soil reinforcement in the studied clay soil.