Fig. 8

DARLING measurements of flexural stiffness were highly correlated with flexural stiffness measurements gathered using three point bending testing methods. Note the slope of the regression line is not 1.0 for the bamboo samples. This is because the bamboo samples were tapered (i.e., diameter changes with length along the stalk) and the moment/stress distribution along the sample is different in a 3-pt bending test than it is in a cantilevered test. The slope of the regression line for the synthetic samples is closer to 1.0 as these samples were not tapered. It should be noted that wind loaded stalks exhibit moment distributions similar to those induced by DARLING but not similar to those produced in a three-point bending test