The development of steel in engineering structures or components faces the problems of high cost and high carbon emission, which demands new materials used as reinforcement to be proposed and applied. Bamboo is a green and renewable natural material, and has higher tensile strength parallel to grain compared to wood. Based on the excellent mechanical properties in the parallel-to-grain direction of bamboo fiber, this paper proposed an innovative bamboo fiber-reinforced polymer tendon with U-head (BFRP tendon). To analyze the tension capacity and mechanical behavior of the BFRP tendon, the thin-shell model and thick-shell model have been proposed in succession. Both models were compared with the results of tensile test and good agreement was achieved in the stress distribution and the ultimate load. The tension capacity of the BFRP tendon has been proved to be reliable, which can give full play to the advantages of bamboo fiber.
Keywords: BFRP tendon; mechanical behavior; tension capacity; thick-shell model; thin-shell model.