Experimental characterization of creep behavior of laminated bamboo composites based on stepped isothermal method

Abstract In the present research, the accelerated test using the stepped isothermal method (SIM) was applied to characterize the long‐term compressive behavior of laminated bamboo. Generating a creep master curve using the SIM data is somewhat empirical. In particular, the selection of the end and beginning segments in the rescaling process is not standardized, which will affect the determination of virtual time. The variability of the virtual time influences the construction of master curves, thus leading to errors in predicting long‐term behavior. The difference in selecting the end and beginning segments was studied in terms of the virtual time, rescaled isothermal curves, and master curves. A 40% end segment and a 30% beginning segment were recommended to build a more accurate master curve. The generated master curves showed repeatability and matched reasonably well with the conventional creep results. It indicates that SIM is a reliable tool for the accelerated test of the long‐term behavior of laminated bamboo. In addition, isochronous stress‐creep strain curves were constructed based on the master curves at different loadings to provide evidence to determine stress levels for structural design.