Composites of Portland cement and fibers of Guadua angustifolia Kunth from Colombia

The main objective of this work is to study the flexural mechanical behavior of fiber-reinforced composites made of ordinary white Portland cement combined with Guadua bamboo from Colombia (known as Guadua angustifolia Kunth or just guadua). Fibers were carefully removed from the stem with a knife in a manual process, and then samples with 0.0, 4.0, and 8.0？wt% of fibers were fabricated. No further treatment was used in order to make the process as simple and inexpensive as possible for applications in the construction and building materials industry. Mechanical and structural characterization was analyzed by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Density compressive strength and Weibull distribution graphs were included in this work. The results show that flexural strength increases as the fiber content is increased. They also show a very good impregnation of the cement in the fibers, which validated the use of fiber from the bamboo culm. It is feasible that these composites can be used in the construction and building materials industry on a large scale for noncritical ultimate strength applications because of the low costs associated with processing the fibers