International Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering IJCEE-IJENS Vol: 12 No: 03

126903-7878 IJCEE-IJENS June 2012 IJENS

I J E N S
6

AbstractThis work investigated the deflection of 9 beams
that were reinforced with twisted bamboo cables. The beams
were simply supported and tested under two symmetrical points
load monotonically. The beams with three different amount of
bamboo reinforcement were considered. The beam section was
150x250 mm and clear span of 2750 mm. Cracking moment and
crack moment of inertia values were affected significantly by the
presence of bamboo reinforcement in the beam. Experimental
results showed that cracking moment varies from 0.3 to 0.7 of
ultimate moment. Ratio of experimental to theoretical cracking
moment varies ranging from 0.90 to 1.42. A modified form of
cracking moment of inertia was proposed. Thus an effective
moment of inertia used for predicting deflection of bamboo
reinforced beam was introduced. The model produced in this
study gave better prediction than that of both the existing model
and ACI equation in terms of reinforcement ratio between 0.72
% and 1.88 %.

Index TermsEffective moment of inertia, reinforced
concrete, beam, bamboo, deflection

I. INTRODUCTION
amboo is usually known as natural material with many
advantages for people in most developing countries. The
bamboos are normally used by people in rural area to
construct their houses traditionally. With the development of
bamboo preservation technique it is expected that the bamboo
would be used more widely in the future, not only for the poor
but also for middle income people. Thus, by utilization of the
bamboo extensively as steel replacement in the concrete
structural elements, then cost expenditure for the material
construction, especially reinforced concrete elements, may be
reduced.
In the reinforced concrete elements, steel reinforcement
plays significant influences on the price of the reinforced
concrete member of building construction. Thus, in
developing countries, people should be encouraged to use the

This work was done in Laboratory of Structure and Material, Faculty of
Engineering Mataram University under financial support of Directorate
General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Culture of the
Republic of Indonesia.
Akmaluddin is with the Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of
Engineering, Mataram University, Jl. Majapahit No. 62 Mataram, Indonesia,
(phone: +62370636126; fax:+62370636523; e-mail: akmal@ftunram.ac.id*).
Pathurahman is with the Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of
Engineering, Mataram University, Jl. Majapahit No. 62 Mataram, Indonesia.

widely available bamboo as a replacement of steel in
reinforced concrete element for construction of their houses.
Low-cost housing program can be achieved as bamboo
material has low cost, fast growing and broad distribution of
growth [1]. The material is also considered a very promising
alternate raw material because of its fast growth rate, short
rotation age, and high tensile strength [2].
Studies concerning bamboo application in building
construction have attracted attention from many researchers
around the world since the 20
th
century. Hidalgo [2] has
studied mechanical properties of bamboo when used as
concrete reinforcement and has reported significant finding on
the advantages of bamboo cable as reinforcement. In the same
period, Ghavami [3] also reported the load carrying capacity
of lightweight concrete beam reinforced with bamboo
increased up to 400% compare to that of the concrete beam
without bamboo reinforcement. Ten years later he also
discussed bamboo as reinforcement in other structural
concrete elements such as slabs and columns [4]. The
application of bamboo as reinforcement in concrete for low-
cost housing was studied by Akeju and Falade in Nigeria [5].
Bamboo splints were applied in this study. Beams behavior,
flexural strength and mode of failure of the bamboo splint in
concrete were discussed. Recently, three studies conducted in
Japan, Bangladesh and Ghana have discussed fracture
behavior and mechanical properties of bamboo reinforced
concrete members [1], performance evaluation of bamboo
reinforced concrete beams [6] and the effect of different
stirrup used in the bamboo reinforced concrete beams [7]
respectively. By considering studies that have been conducted
by many researches as shown in ref. [1] [7], it has led to
increasing confidence for using bamboo as the replacement of
steel in concrete members of building construction.
In conjunction with designing concrete beam section, two
acceptance criteria must be satisfied; they are ultimate limit
state (ULS) and serviceability limit state (SLS) condition. The
first criterion was almost discussed in depth in the previous
study by comparing the experimental and the theoretical
capacity of the concrete beam section. However, not for the
case of the second criterion it was lack of discussion. Thus this
study aims to discuss not only bamboo beam capacity but also
its serviceability limit state particularly its deflection. The
deflection of simply supported beam under two-point loading
can be computed by using (1).
Effective Moment of Inertia Approach for
Predicting Deflection of Concrete Beams
Reinforced with Twisted Bamboo Cables
Akmaluddin*, Pathurahman
B
International Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering IJCEE-IJENS Vol: 12 No: 03

126903-7878 IJCEE-IJENS June 2012 IJENS
I J E N S
7
( )
2 2
3 4
24
M L a
EI

=
(1)
where M is the moment acting on the beam, a is shear span, L
is beam span and EI is the flexural stiffness of the beam which
is product of elastic modulus, E, and moment of inertia, I. The
last two variables are subject to change during the course of
loading. In concrete beam test, the modulus of elasticity will
vary due to load increase. This is caused by the inelastic
stress-strain behavior of concrete beyond the elastic limits,
while the moment of inertia will vary when cracks on the
beam occur due to the tensile strain greater than the cracking
strain of concrete [8]. The cracked zones in a concrete beam
are ineffective in resisting stresses originating from applied
loads and moments. Therefore, cracking of concrete decreases
the resistance of a concrete beam to loading, leading to greater
deformation in the beam. The decrease in the second moment
of area of a concrete beam during the course of loading is
taken into account by the effective moment of inertia
approach. Changing variation of the effective moment of
inertia is summarized in Fig.1.

By referring to the figure, when the maximum moment (M
a
)
in a beam does not exceed the cracking moment (M
cr
), the
beam is in the uncracked condition therefore I is taken as I
g
.
This is shown by a linier line of I/I
g
equal to 1 in Fig. 1. Once
M
a
bigger than M
cr
, the overall moment of inertia of a concrete
beam decreases gradually from the un-cracked moment of
inertia (I
g
) to the fully-cracked moment of inertia (I
cr
). This
gradual decrease is taken into consideration by the effective
moment of inertia approach (I
e
). The following effective
moment of inertia expression was originally proposed by
Branson [9] and was adopted by ACI [10] and presented as
(2).
3
( )
cr
e cr g cr
a
M
I I I I
M
| |
= +
|
\
(2)
The uncracked moment of inertia, I
g
, was considered equal to
gross moment of inertia ignoring reinforcement and given as
(3).
3 1
12 g
I bh = (3)
where b and h are the width and height of the beam,
respectively.
While the moment of inertia of the section in the fully cracked
condition is given by (4).
3 2 1
12
( )
cr s
I b c n A d c = + (4)
where c is the neutral axis depth of the fully-cracked section;
n is the modular ratio of steel to concrete; As is the total cross-
sectional area of the longitudinal reinforcement; and d is the
effective depth of the tension reinforcement.
While cracking moment is given by (5)
r g
cr
t
f I
M
y
= (5)
where y
t
is the vertical distance of the extreme tension fibers
from neutral axis. Modulus of rupture, f
r
, in the (5) can be
calculated by (6).
7 5
'
r c
f . f = (6)
The equation above should be multiplied by 0.75 when
applied to lightweight concrete.
Another expression of the effective moment of inertia was
introduced by Fikry and Thomas [11] after considering ref.
[12] and [13]. The expression is given by (7).
( )
e cre g cre
I I I I e

= +
(7)
where I
cre
is modified form of (4) and is a variable
representing function of loading and reinforcement ratio and
given as (8) and (9) respectively.
3 1
12
( )
cre
I n bd = + (8)

a cr
cr
M L
M L

| |
| |
=
|
|
\
\
(9)
where and are constants depending on the n value. is
reinforcement ratio, L is beam span. L
cr
is cracking length of
the beam and for this test beam is given by (10) [12].
( ) 1 2
cr cr a
L L M M a L = (10)
Equation (7) - (9) was purely developed using data obtained in
the journal paper, thus the author has verified and modified the
expression using experimental work [14]. Recently the author
has also modified the equation which valid to be used for
pumice lightweight concrete beam reinforced with mild steel
[15] as given by (11) and (12). These equations actually have
replaced the form of (8) and (9) respectively.

0.25 3 1
12
0.36 ( )
cr
I n bd = (11)
(1.41 0.44 )
a cr
m
cr
M L
M L

| |
| |
= +
|
|
\
\
(12)

From the author previous study, it was concluded that the
amount and characteristic of reinforcement in a beam section
will affect significantly the effective moment of inertia of the
beam. While concrete compressive strength did not straight
forward affect the moment of inertia but indirectly influences
the cracked moment of inertia represented by a modular ratio.
Thus, as previously discussed of the potential use of bamboo
as reinforcement of concrete beam, therefore this study aims is
to improve the I
e
expression of (7) in order to be valid for
0.00
0.20
0.40
0.60
0.80
1.00
1.20
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
I/Ig
Ma/Mcr
I
e
/I
g
I
cr
/I
g
Fig. 1. Moment of inertia variation at various load level
International Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering IJCEE-IJENS Vol: 12 No: 03

126903-7878 IJCEE-IJENS June 2012 IJENS
I J E N S
8
predicting concrete beam reinforced with twisted bamboo
cables.
II. SCOPE AND LIMITATION
This study is experimental in nature. Present research focus
on development of model for short term deflection prediction
of beam reinforced with twisted bamboo cables. Bamboo
specimens were dried to produce such a moisture content of
about 15%. The performance of the bamboo used was
investigated in terms of tensile strength, water absorption, and
unit weight. Two types of concrete ie normal weight and
pumice lightweight concrete were used. Physical and
mechanical properties of the concrete were also investigated in
terms of unit weight, fine modulus, mud content, compressive
strength and elastic modulus. Rectangular beams section
reinforced with twisted bamboo cables of 0.72 %, 1.08 % and
1.88 % reinforcement ratio were investigated. The beams were
loaded under two symmetrical points load. In addition, the
load-deflection curves produced from the beam tested were
used to study beams behavior under loading, crack
development and ultimate load variation. Finally, a modified
model was developed. The model was applicable to predict
short terms bamboo beam deflection with reinforcement ratio
between 0.72 % and 1.88 %.
III. EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM
Beams of normal weight concrete (NC) and lightweight
concrete (LC) were considered. Nine beams consisted of 6 NC
and 3 LC beams were tested in this study. The beams details
and designation used are presented in Fig. 2 and Table 1
respectively. The beams were varied in tension reinforcement
and concrete strength. The NC beams consisted of two
concrete compressive strengths of 17 and 30 MPa while the
LC beams were made using concrete compressive strength of
17 MPa.




TABLE I
BEAMS DESIGNATION
Beam_ID
Type of
concrete
f'c (MPa)
Tension
bar
Compression
bars
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)
NC17-2
Normal
Weight
Concrete
(NC)
17
0.72 % 0.12 %
NC17-3 1.08 % 0.12 %
NC17-5 1.88 % 0.13 %
NC30-2
30
0.72 % 0.12 %
NC30-3 1.08 % 0.12 %
NC30-5 1.88 % 0.13 %
LC17-2
Lightweight
Concrete
(LC)
17
0.72 % 0.12 %
LC17-3 1.08 % 0.12 %
LC17-5 1.88 % 0.13 %

The beams ID presented in column (1) of Table I can be
explained as follows. For example, beam ID NC17-2 means
that the beam was manufactured using normal weight concrete
of 17 MPa of concrete compressive strength and contain 2
amounts of bamboo cables. Thus, in the next discussion of the
beams will refer to the beam identification as presented in the
table.
A. Materials
The NC and LC used herein were designed and prepared.
Care was taken to ensure the appropriate mix proportion of
cement, coarse aggregate, pumice of 10 mm maximum size
and water content as given in Table II.
TABLE II
CONCRETE MIXTURE PROPORTIONS
Type of
concrete
Target fc,
MPa
Mixture proportion
w/c
Cement
kg/m
3

Gravel
kg/m
3

Sand
kg/m
3

Pumice
kg/m
3


NC

17 0.58 327 1073 810 -

30 0.45 422 1073 715 -

LC

17 0.4 507.5 - 467.23 382.28

Bamboo cables were produced by twisting 3 bamboo splints
with size of (5 mm x 8 mm). The technique used was
adopted from ref. [2] and clearly can be seen in Figure 3. For
more convenient, then the original picture presented in ref. [2]
was re-drawing as presented in Fig. 3.
Fig. 2. Experimental setup and details of test beams: (a) beam cross
section and (b) demounted mechanical gauge point for reading strain
of concrete beam surface

5x6-100
2 6
1.075 a =1.075
2750
2, 3, 5
12
150
20 20
210
1
2
3
4
5
10
10
57.5
57.5
57.5
57.5
C
L
200
250
600
(a)
(b)
P
P
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126903-7878 IJCEE-IJENS June 2012 IJENS
I J E N S
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The bamboos used were locally known as bambu Galah.
The bamboos were measured their properties including
ultimate tensile strength, f
ub
, unit weight, , elastic modulus, E
b

and moisture content. Test results of the bamboo properties
were obtained prior to the beam tested. The average values
obtained are presented in Table III.
TABLE III
BAMBOO REINFORCEMENT DETAILS
Bamboo properties
Bamboo
with nodes
Bamboo
without nodes

fub (MPa) 109 186

(gr/cm
3
)
Eb (N/mm
2
)

0.878
6830
Moisture content (%) 15.12

As bamboo is a natural material, it was difficult to maintain
the size of bamboo splint to be constant throughout its length.
Thus, the bamboo cable diameter was estimated by (13).
4
b
W
l

= (13)
where W and l are weight and length of bamboo cable
specimen respectively. is unit weight of the bamboo cable.
Thus it was obtained that for the bamboo cable specimen with
length of 60 cm, the bamboo cable average weight was 61.32
gr. Thus, by using (13) it was obtained bamboo diameter of
12.1 mm. Therefore, the number of reinforcement contained in
beam section can be expressed in general term as tension
reinforcement ratio of 0.72 %, 1.08 % and 1.88 % for beam
containing 2, 3 and 5 bamboo cable respectively as can be
seen in Table I.
B. Test Specimens
The beams cross sections were rectangular of 150 mm wide
and 250 mm height. The beams, length of 3 m, were simply
supported over a span of 2.75 m and tested under two
concentrated load placed symmetrically at 600 mm apart. As
shown in Fig. 2. Table I shows the beams contained
longitudinal reinforcement both in tension and compression as
can be seen in column (4) and (5) of the table respectively.
However, as the compression reinforcements were very small
amount compare to the reinforcement in tension, thus the
beam may be treated as singly reinforced beam section.
Transverse reinforcement made of 5x6 mm bamboo splint
bent into closed stirrups. A clear cover of 30 mm to the
stirrups was provided. All of the beams were provided with
the same spacing of stirrups of 100 mm along the beam span
and designed to ensure the beams failure in flexure.
The beams were cast in plywood molds and compacted by a
needle vibrator. Sufficient numbers of 150 x 300 mm
cylinders were cast from each batch to determine the
properties of the concrete. The beams and the control
specimens were demolded on the next day of casting and
moist-cured for 7 days by wrapping them with wet burlap and
plastic sheet to prevent moisture loss. Then, they were kept in
the laboratory environment until testing at an age of 28 days.
Prior to beam tested, the beams were painted white to facilitate
the observation of crack propagation that occurs on the surface
of the beam.
C. Instrumentation and Test Procedure
The beams were suitably instrumented for measuring
deflection and concrete strain on beam surfaces of both sides
at midspan. The beams were initially preloaded to
approximately 2 kN to remove any slacking at the supports.
The load was then released and all instruments were zeroed.
The beams were monotonically loaded at a rate of 0.005
mm/sec until failure. The load was applied incrementally by a
150 kN capacity of Matest flexural testing machine. A
Mitutoyo dial gauge reading of 50 mm was used to measure
deflection. The dial gauge was placed at the beam mid span. A
Mayes demec strain gauge was applied for measuring
concrete strain at beam surface. During the test, the load at
each stage was kept constant for a while to allow the
observation of the crack development in the beam surface and
to read the deflection. The cracks were marked both on the left
and right side of the beam with given number indicating the
corresponding load level. The general behavior of the
specimen was carefully observed during the load application.
The load was terminated after the beam failure. The failure
load was then identified when excessive cracking occurs at the
bottom of the beam and the applied load drops simultaneously
with the deflection increased.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Behavior of Twisted Bamboo Reinforced Concrete Beam
The bamboo reinforced concrete beam behavior can be
explained using NC30-3 beam as a beam representation. From
visual observation during a testing of the beam, it was found
that the beam is un-cracked until reach the value of load of 12
kN. During this course the load deflection curve is linier (Fig.
4a). This is also supported by the strains reading on the beam
surface which start to spread at load 12 kN (Fig.4b). After
loading increased greater than 12 kN, concrete beam surface
start to crack produced a large increase in deflection. This is
caused by the stiffness of the beam was lost greatly. In the
concrete beam surface at bottom of the beam start to
experience tension strain and in contrast with top surface of
Three of bamboo
splints
30% -35% of bamboo
thickness from outer
Bamboo splints are
twisting
Twisted bamboo is tied
Fig. 3. Construction of twist bamboo cable for beam reinforcement [2]
International Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering IJCEE-IJENS Vol: 12 No: 03

126903-7878 IJCEE-IJENS June 2012 IJENS
I J E N S
10
the concrete beam where they experience compression strain
as can be seen in Fig. 4b. The more load given the more
stiffness reduced as a result greater deflection occur. Finally,
the beam was failure at loading of 20 kN with produced
deflection of 20 mm as can be seen in Fig. 4a. At ultimate load
the maximum tensile strain occurs at the bottom of the beam
and then narrowed to the top and turned into compressive
strain at the top of the beam. This can be seen clearly in Fig.
4b.

B. Experimental Beams Capacity
The beams capacity was studied through load-deflection
curve. From this curve it can be obtained first cracked moment
and ultimate moment capacity of the beam. It was obtained
that the cracking moment varies from 0.3 to 0.7 of the ultimate
moment. While the measured cracking moment was varies
from 0.9 to 1.42 of theoretical cracked moment calculated
using by (5) as can be seen in Table IV column (5).
From Table IV, it can be seen that ratio cracked moment to
ultimate moment decreased with the increasing the tension
reinforcement at similar beams. Thus the cracking moment
value was significantly affected by the presence of
reinforcement in the beam. In contrast with the ratio between
observed and theoretical cracked moment, this produced
average ratios close to 1. Therefore, the cracked moment was
not taken into consideration to be improved.
TABLE IV
ULTIMATE, CRACKING AND SERVICE MOMENT OBSERVED
Beam ID Mu(exp) Mcr(exp) Mcr(th)
Mcr(exp)/
Mu(exp)
Mcr(exp)/Mcr(th)
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
NC17-2 6.18 4.30 3.99 0.70 1.08
NC17-3 10.75 5.38 3.99 0.50 1.35
NC17-5 16.13 4.84 3.99 0.30 1.21
NC30-2 10.75 5.38 5.30 0.50 1.01
NC30-3 16.13 6.45 5.30 0.40 1.22
NC30-5 24.73 7.53 5.30 0.30 1.42
LC17-2 5.38 2.69 3.00 0.50 0.90
LC17-3 7.53 3.23 3.00 0.43 1.08
LC17-5 10.75 3.23 3.00 0.30 1.08
C. Comparison between Experimental and Prediction
Measured deflection of all beams tested in this study were
compared to deflection calculations by using (1) with (7)
through (9) approach. The comparison results are presented in
Fig. 5. It can be seen from the figure that almost all predicted
deflection underestimate the experimental deflection. This
results showed that (7) through (9) approach must be
improved in order to the equations are suitably used for
predicting bamboo reinforced beam deflection.

D. Moment of Inertia Improvement
In this study the model improvement is built using the
beams subjected to two symmetrical points load as described
previously.
It was obtained from the previous results of the author
studies [14]-[16] that when the load acting less than cracking
load, M
a
<M
cr
, the section is uncracked condition, therefore I
e

equal to I
g
. However, by increasing the load until reach the
yield load, M
a
=M
y
, the condition of section is fully cracked
thus I
e
=I
cr
. For this reason I
e(exp)
= I
cr(exp)
, therefore the
experimental values of I
cr
is given as (14).
( )
2 2
(exp)
exp
3 4
24
y
cr
c
M L a
I
E

= (14)
The values of experimental I obtained are normalized and
plotted alongside the theoretical I against M
a
/M
cr
as shown in
Figure 6.

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
P
r
e
d
i
c
t
e
d

d
e
f
l
e
c
t
i
o
n

(
m
m
)
Measured deflection (mm)
+20%
-20%
Fig. 5. Comparison of experiment and calculated deflection using existing
model (7)
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00
I
/
I
g
M
a
/M
cr
NC30-5
I
e
/I
g
I
exp
/I
g
I
cr
/I
g
0
5
10
15
20
25
0 5 10 15 20 25
L
o
a
d
(
k
N
)
deflection (mm)
NC 30 3
0
5
10
15
20
25
-5 0 5 10 15
L
o
a
d

(
k
N
)
strain (x 10
-7
)
NC 30 3
Fig. 4. Load-deflection curve (a) and load vs strain (b) of typical beam
tested
(a) (b)

1

2

3

4

5

Fig. 6. Variation of I at various load level
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126903-7878 IJCEE-IJENS June 2012 IJENS
I J E N S
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From Fig. 6 it can be seen that the theoretical values of I
e
, are
not always higher than the experimental values but the
experimental values of I
e
are greater than the theoretical values
of I
cr
over the range of M
a
/M
cr
. This suggested that the
theoretical evaluation of I
cr
need to be modified.
It was decided to consider the effect of compressive
strength, f
c
, and reinforcement ratio, , on the value of I
cr(exp)
.
However, factor f
c
is eliminated in equation using the term n
instead. Thus by plotting average ratio
3
1
(exp) 12 cr
I b d against
(n)
0.25
as shown in Figure 7 which give the best fit of the data
and produce another alternative for I
cr
. From regression
analysis this produces new I
cr
as given by (15).
0.25 3 1
12
0.18 ( )
crm
I n bd = (15)

To fix the data it also need to modify the factor in the
expression presented in (7). Therefore, experimental value of
factor was obtained by re-arranging (7) and gives results as
given by (16).
(exp)
exp
ln
e crm
g crm
I I
I I

(16)
Substituting (15) into (16) to obtain experimental values.
The values divided by ( )( )
a cr cr
M M L L were defined as
C and plotted against reinforcement ratio as shown in Figure
8. From regression analysis this produce equation as given by
(17).
(1.54 0.58 )
a cr
m
cr
M L
M L

| |
| |
= +
|
|
\
\
(17)

L
cr
/L in (17) is function of load condition. The values of L
cr
/L
for two symmetrical points load is given by (18).
2
1
cr cr
a
L M a
L M L
| |
=
|
\
(18)


By substituting (18) into (17) produce replacement form of
the (17) as given by (19).
2 (1.54 0.58 )
a
m
cr
M a
M L

(
= +
(

(19)


Finally, a proposed model for the calculation of effective
moment of inertia, I
e
, of either normal or lightweight concrete
beam reinforced with twisted bamboo cables is given, ie by
applying (7) with modification parameter appropriate of (15)
and (19) for I
cre
and respectively.
E. Validation to the Experimental Data
Load deflection curve for some beams tested are presented
in Fig. 9 to Fig. 13. It can be seen from the figures that
deflection predicted by ACI and model existing or by (7) give
overestimate prediction to experimental values. Whilst model
proposed in this study has good agreement with the
experimental value. Figure 10 shows both ACI and by (7) still
overestimate the deflection variation from almost 50 % of the
ultimate load level. However, the proposed model produced
more accurate prediction. Similarly with Fig. 11 and 12, the
proposed model produces better prediction than that of both
the ACI and by (7).

y = 0.18x - 0.00
R = 0.91
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
I
c
r
(
e
x
p
)
/
1
/
1
2
b
d
3
(n)
0.25
Fig. 7. Regression analysis which produced (15)
C = -0.58 - 1.54
-6.00
-5.00
-4.00
-3.00
-2.00
-1.00
0.00
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
C
(%)
Fig. 8. Regression analysis for the factor
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
L
o
a
d

(
k
N
)
Deflection (mm)
NC30-5
experiment
ACI
existing model
proposed model
Fig. 9. Experimental and predicted deflection of NC30-5 beam using
various model
International Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering IJCEE-IJENS Vol: 12 No: 03

126903-7878 IJCEE-IJENS June 2012 IJENS
I J E N S
12



The proposed model produces more accurate estimation of
deflection when used for the deflection calculation of normal
weight concrete beam compared to deflection calculations of
the lightweight concrete beam. This clearly can be seen in Fig.
9, Fig. 10, and Fig. 12 for NC30-5, NC17-5 and NC17-3
respectively. It can also be seen respectively in Fig. 11 and
Fig. 13 for LC17-5 and LC17-3.



At last, to show the results produced by the proposed
model, a comparison between experiment deflection and
deflection calculated by the proposed model for all the beams
test are presented. The deflection considered was deflection
due to loading at 50 to 70% of ultimate load level. This is
considered as serviceability load level. The results show that
vast majority of the predicted deflection within the range of
20% limit as given in Fig. 14.


V. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
The model proposed in this study has good agreement with
the experimental value and give better accuracy than that of
the existing model, Therefore the model valid to be used for
analyzing deflection of twisted bamboo reinforced concrete
beam in terms of reinforcement ratio between 0.73 % and
1.88%.
To obtain more comprehensive conclusion, then further
research is needed to verify this model using one-way bamboo
reinforced concrete elements with reinforcement ratio higher
than 2%. The possibility improvement of the model for
predicting deflection of beam with T section must also be
proved by carrying out experimental work.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
0 20 40 60 80
L
o
a
d

(
k
N
)
Deflection (mm)
NC17-5
experiment
ACI
existing model
proposed model
Fig. 10. Experimental and predicted deflection of NC17-5 beam using
various model
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
0 10 20 30 40 50
L
o
a
d

(
k
N
)
Deflection (mm)
LC17- 5
experiment
ACI
existing model
proposed model
Fig. 11. Experimental and predicted deflection of LC17-5 beam using
various model
0
5
10
15
20
25
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
L
o
a
d

(
k
N
)
Deflection (mm)
NC17-3
experiment
ACI
existing model
proposed modell
Fig. 12. Experimental and predicted deflection of NC17-3 beam using
various model
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
0 10 20 30 40 50
L
o
a
d

(
k
N
)
Deflection (mm)
LC17-3
experiment
ACI
existing model
proposed model
Fig. 13. Experimental and predicted deflection of LC17-3 beam using
various model
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
P
r
e
d
i
c
t
e
d

d
e
f
l
e
c
t
i
o
n

(
m
m
)
Measured deflection (mm)
+20%
-20%
Fig. 14. Comparison between measured and predicted deflection at
service load level abot 0.5 to 0.7 of ultimate load
International Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering IJCEE-IJENS Vol: 12 No: 03

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I J E N S
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