India is the second-largest producer of bamboo in the world and hence the effective utilization of the same can provide homes for the homeless people in Rural India. In my Ph.D. research, I have explored the use of bamboo as reinforcement for precast wall panel applications. Here, varnished and sandblasted bamboo splints of 20mm width were used as reinforcement in concrete to completely replace steel reinforcement in concrete. All the 12 wall panels were of height 2m and thickness 80mm and were having varying widths. Bamboo reinforced concrete wall panels with and without opening and of varying aspect ratio and thinness ratio were tested under one-way and two-way in-plane action and equations were predicted to determine its load-carrying capacity. Further, during Post-Doc at IITB, I would like to explore research in the areas like bamboo reinforced concrete structural elements and/or whole bamboo structures, as per the availability of research funding at IIT Bombay.
NIT Calicut
Dr. Himasree P. R. is an Adhoc Faculty at the Department of Architecture and Planning, NIT Calicut. She is a Structural Engineer who is interested in working on sustainable materials in construction. She did her graduation in Civil Engineering from the College of Engineering Trivandrum; post-graduation in Structural Engineering from NIT Calicut. She has done her Ph.D. in Structural Engineering on the Topic "Strength and behavior of bamboo reinforced concrete wall panels" from NIT Calicut. She has worked in two private engineering colleges in Trivandrum and has been working as an Adhoc Faculty at NIT Calicut for the past 4 semesters.