Bamboo oriented strand boards (BOSB) are very suitable for application in construction structures because of their excellent mechanical properties. This research investigated the shear performance of bamboo I-beams composed of BOSB to verify the structural performance of I-beams. Short beam shear tests and uniform vertical load capacity tests were performed to investigate the effects of various factors on the properties of bamboo I-beams. The results showed that shear bearing capacity and uniform vertical load capacity of bamboo I-beams exceeded the requirements for performance-rated I-Joists in APA PRI-400-2021. The shear bearing capacity, stiffness, and failure types of bamboo I-beams were determined by the web materials, flange–web joint type, and beam depth. Increasing the bamboo I-beam depth without changing the flange dimensions had no significant effect on the shear bearing capacity and stiffness of bamboo I-beams. The shear bearing capacity and stiffness of wooden orientated strand board webbed I-beams were almost half of those of bamboo I-beams with the same depth. The shear bearing capacities of specimens calculated based on the shear bearing capacity calculation formula of I-beams recommended in the Canadian standard were reasonably close to the experimental results. The uniform vertical load capacity of bamboo I-beams gradually decreased as the depth of the bamboo I-beam increased from 300 mm to 500 mm.

Due to the low specific strength of bamboo oriented strand boards compared with the commonly used wooden building materials, reasonable and novel cross-section designs of bamboo columns fabricated from bamboo oriented strand boards as structural members were investigated. An axial compression experiment was carried out on full-scale bamboo columns to characterize the ultimate behaviors under a concentric load. The ultimate bearing capacities of solid, hollow and five-core columns of the same height were not obviously different from each other. The columns with a larger slenderness ratio showed lower ultimate loads and higher axial deflections. The short columns experienced failure due to material crushing, and the long columns experienced a combination of material crushing and inelastic buckling. The empirical equations for predicting the ultimate bearing capacity for wooden columns showed applicability for bamboo columns. Non-linear finite element modeling analyses were carried out to validate the experimental results, and a satisfactory agreement was found in the failure modes and ultimate bearing capacity.