Assessment of fire reaction and fire resistance of Guadua angustifolia kunth bamboo

The main challenge for construction industry today is sustainability. Bamboo has properties that make it sustainable, but its fire behavior remains unknown. This paper presents an exploratory research on fire behavior of Guadua angustifolia kunth (a.k.) bamboo. Fire reaction was assessed through critical heat flux for ignition and flame spread while fire resistance through charring rate and strength variation with temperature. Fire reaction fall within standard limits used for structural woods, while fire resistance results are higher than that of plywood. Based on these preliminary results, Guadua a.k. would be adequate as structural and indoor finishing building material.

► Guadua a.k. has critical ignition and spread heat fluxes higher than plywood.
► Guadua a.k. has charring rate similar or lower than plywood.
► Guadua a.k. has higher strength and lower strength decrease with temperature than plywood.
► Guadua a.k. is suitable for structural and finishing elements from fire behavior perspective.