Scientific publications
2012Journal articleEnglishOpen access
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Scientific publications
Didier Fokwa
F. Ngapgue
M. Mpessa
Douala Cameroon
Three physical properties (density, porosity and shrinkage) of two Bamboo species from western Cameroon are analysed. The effect of position in a tree (bottom, middle and top) and the growing zone (uphill, valley and slender) of the tree on those physical properties are carrying out. The effect of nodes on physical properties are analysed. Bamboo is a natural composite, constituted of fibres embedded in a lignin matrix in the direction of tree growing. Despite the scattering of the results due to the random distribution of the components, the study shows that the density increase from the bottom to top, the density of the bamboo is more important at the level of the node zone than on the internodes. The outer layer of the culm is more dense than the inner layer, and the uphill bamboo seems to have better physical properties than the valley bamboo.