ABSTRACT
This paper presents a study of the behaviour of bamboo specimens with fish mouth cut under compression parallel to the fibre. In this research, an experimental stage and several numerical models using the finite element method were performed. In the first stage, specimens with straight cuts at both ends and specimens with one of the ends with fish mouth cut were studied. In both cases, specimens with two types of confinement rings and without any were tested. It was found that in average the resistance to compression parallel to the fibre decreases by more than 30% when having a fish mouth cut. And inclusive, by more than 60% when the specimens did not have confinement rings. However, it was observed that, with the confinement ring, the element ductility improves. Regarding computational analysis, the orthotropic material model presented similar results to the tested samples.
