Incidence of mercerization treatment in the mechanical properties of bamboo fibre bundles "Guadua Angustifolia Kunth" from colombian origin

In this article, bamboo fibre bundles of "Guadua Angustifolia Kunth" specie were isolated from different locations of the basa zone: upper, middle and lower, through mechanical extraction method. The elastic modulus and the tensile strength were obtained with preliminary tensile tests. Applying the statistical analysis known as ANOVA, it was determined that the mechanical properties are similar in all the extension of the basa zone. From there, fibre bundles were extracted randomly, and a part of the fibre bundles was treated with NaOH (mercerization). Later, tensile tests with different calibration lengths were made for calculate the elastic modulus and the tensile strength of the treated and untreated fibre bundles. Best results belonged to the treated fibre bundles. A good correspondence between the results obtained in this work and the results reported in the literature was concluded.