Bamboo is recognized as a potential and sustainable green material. The longitudinal-splitting and shear strengths of bamboo are weak but critical to its utilizations. To discuss the different shear performances of bamboo, the shear strength and behaviors of bamboo culm were investigated by four test methods: the tensile-shear, step-shear, cross-shear, and short-beam-shear methods. Then, the different shear performance and mechanisms were discussed. Results indicated that the shear strength was significantly different in the four test methods and was highest in the step-shear-test method but lowest in the tensile-shear-test method. Moreover, the typical load-displacement curves were different across the shear methods but were similar to the curves of the respective loading modes. The axially aligned fiber bundles played an important role in all the shear performances. In the tensile-shear method, specimens fractured at the interface of the bamboo-fiber bundles. However, compress-shear behaviors were a combination of compression and shear. Then, the cross-shear method, in compress-shear, was lower than that of the step-shear method because of oval-shaped bamboo culm sections of different thickness. In the short-beam shear method, the behaviors and shearing characteristics were like bending with the fiber bundle pulled out.
Keywords: fracture behavior; moso bamboo; shear performance; shearing characteristics; test methods.