Biomimicry of bamboo bast fiber with engineering composite materials

Bamboo, one of the strongest natural structural composite materials, has many distinguishing features. It has been found that its reinforcement unit, hollow, multilayered and spirally-wound bast fiber, plays an extremely important role in its mechanical behavior. In the present work, on the basis of the study on bamboo bast fiber and wood tracheid, a biomimetic model of the reinforcing element, composed of two layers of helically wound fiber, was suggested. To detect the structural characteristics of such a microstructure, four types of macro fiber specimens made of engineering composites were employed: axially aligned solid and hollow cylinders, and single- and double-helical hollow cylinders. These specimens were subjected to several possible loadings, and the experimental results reveal that only the double-helical structural unit possesses the optimum comprehensive mechanical properties. An interlaminar transition zone model imitating bamboo bast fiber was proposed and was verified by engineering composite materials. In our work, the transition zone can increase the interlaminar shear strength of the composite materials by about 15%. These biomimetic structural models can be applied in the design and manufacture of engineering composite materials.