Title:
Flexural Behavior of Bamboo-Reinforced Sulfur Concrete Beams for Planetary Applications
Author(s):
Thiel
Publication:
Web Session
Volume:
Issue:
Appears on pages(s):
Keywords:
DOI:
Date:
10/23/2022
Abstract:
Settlement on Mars has become the next huge leap for the human species during the 21st century. To accomplish that, there are challenges to overcome, such as the expense of transporting all construction materials from Earth to the red planet, Mars. Thus, the application of local resources available on Mars is a viable option. The research study proposes to use indigenous soil concrete on Mars (sulfur concrete) and use bamboo pieces (shipped from the home planet or grown on Martian soil in the future) for reinforcing the sulfur concrete. Bamboo has a tremendous economic advantage, as it reaches its full growth in a few months and reaches its maximum mechanical resistance in just a few years. The most important property of bamboo for the planetary application is its density (~75 lb/ft^3) which is approximately 1/7 of the density of mild steel. This lower unit weight of bamboo compared to mild steel significantly serves towards the goal of reducing the transportation cost to the red planet. It should also be mentioned that the tensile strength of bamboo is approximately 20 ksi, which is almost 60% of that of conventional steel reinforcement (36 ksi). In this research, ten sulfur concrete beams, reinforced with different amounts of bamboo as longitudinal reinforcement, have been tested using three-point-bending test to measure their flexural strength. The results showed that the bamboo-reinforced concrete has a significant higher ductility, and almost two times higher flexural strength compared to those of the plain sulfure concrete.