Morphology, density and dimensions of bamboo fibers: a bibliographical compilation

Abstract

Bamboos are fast-growing plants, with outstanding physical-mechanical characteristics that may be chiefly ascribed to the features and dimensions of their main structural element: their fibers. This study aimed to perform a dimensional description (length, width, lumen diameter and wall thickness) and depict the indices and technical coefficients of fibers of bamboo species that occur in Brazil, through a bibliographical survey. The results showed that the basic density in test stem-specimens of the surveyed species varied between 0.451 g cm-3 and 0.780 g cm-3, what revealed a great variability among them. The average values observed for the fiber dimensions were 2.29 mm for length, 16.4 µm for total width, 6.4 µm for wall thickness and 3.5 µm for lumen diameter. From these data, it was possible to estimate indices and technical coefficients that support good physical-mechanical characteristics of bamboo in the several studied species.

KEYWORDS: Fiber slenderness ratio, Runkel index, fiber flexibility coefficient, fiber wall fraction.