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This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 165, Timber structures.

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Glued laminated bamboo is produced by bonding together bamboo strips with their fibres parallel to each other. A member with a rectangular or non-rectangular solid cross-section can be produced through this manufacturing process.

The purpose of the requirements in this document is to provide minimum product specifications to achieve adequate in-service performance of glued laminated bamboo building structures.

Figure 1 shows the typical manufacturing steps of glued laminated bamboo. Figure 1 a) shows a single bamboo strip (also known as ‘lamina’) with rectangular cross section (ws × ts × ls as shown in Figure 1 a) which is typically lengthened by adding bamboo strips using non-structural joints (see 6.1). Figure 1 b) shows a multiple layered glued laminated bamboo “board” (having width ws and height h) component that results from bonding together bamboo strips. The boards are subsequently assembled into glued laminated bamboo components (having width b and height h) as shown in Figure 1 c) and Figures 1 d). The layup shown in Figure 1 c) is the commonly used glued laminated bamboo arrangement. Other arrangements permitted by this document are shown in Figures 1 d).

When producing multiple-board glued laminated bamboo, care shall be taken that the extension joints in adjacent boards are staggered by at least the greater of 10ws and 2h (see Figure 2).