Potential 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 and compressive strength of the tested bamboos are lower than those reported in literature, their tensile strength compete favorable with the others reported in literature. The clay soil used in the study classified under A-7-6 based on 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 at 0 layer to 600 at two layers of the bamboo reinforcement, after which the values reduced to 439.5 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.