In recent decades, the building sector has been moving toward promoting renewable raw materials to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with construction materials. One of the most valuable alternatives is the use of large-volume fractions of vegetable aggregates, leading to the development of bio-based cement mixture. A review of the recent scientific literature has shown that traditional design rules cannot be applied to bio-based cement mixtures. In this context, this study summarizes the results of a comprehensive experimental campaign aimed at unveiling the influence of bamboo particles on the physical properties and durability indicators of Bamboo Bio-Concrete (BBC) designed by applying a recent methodology proposed by the authors. The mixtures were produced using bamboo particles at a volumetric fraction of 45% and 50%. Fundamental properties such as density, thermal conductivity, capillary water absorption, and drying shrinkage were measured. The results obtained herein highlight the lightweight (density lower than 786 kg/m³) and insulating properties (thermal conductivity within 0.32 to 0.52 W/mK) of the BBC. The capillary absorption ranged between 2.40 and 2.83 g/cm², whereas the drying shrinkage ranged between 2500 and 5000 µε. These properties indicate the feasibility of using this material in various applications in the construction sector.

The search for solutions that reduce the environmental impact of construction has driven the development of new materials. Bio-concrete represents a significant advance, presenting itself as an alternative to traditional concrete. Recent studies point to durability in outdoor conditions as one of the main challenges in its application. This paper presents natural durability studies performed on bamboo bio-concrete, produced with a bamboo particle volume of 50%. A surface treatment of applying resin externally was tested to reduce water ingress during weathering. The bio-concretes were exposed to natural and outdoor weather conditions for twelve months, and meteorological records were collected during the study period. The effect and influence of the external resin was investigated using visual surface analysis, uniaxial compression, modulus of elasticity and scanning electron microscopy. In terms of visual aspects, the resin was not effective in preventing loss of gloss, while in terms of microstructure, these samples showed better adhesion between the bamboo particles in the matrix. The compressive strength showed significant reductions of 60% (stress) and 73% (Young’s modulus) after twelve months of weathering. External resin could improve microstructures from surfaces to internal portions and more effectively preserve the mechanical strength of bio-concrete.

In view of the difficulties in obtaining traction laws in the experimental field, it is of the utmost importance to adopt alternative tools to overcome this problem. Thus, this work is a brief manual for obtaining tensile laws using numerical modeling, which describes the steps for obtaining them, from defining the fixed parameters of the numerical model to characterizing the material's tensile mechanical behavior. The DIANA® software was used to run the numerical simulations and the numerical model calibration was based on average results of experimental curves. The target material for this study is a new bamboo bioconcretes developed by researchers at COPPE/UFRJ. The results show that the traction laws developed through inverse analysis using numerical modeling are highly accurate compared to experimental responses. The calibration of the numerical model makes a significant contribution to the quality of the results. Among the evaluated tensile models, the ones that best reproduce the experimental behavior of the bamboo bioconcrete are the multilinear and exponential models.