THE NATURAL DURABILITY OF Gigantochloa Scortechinii FROM DIFFERENT AGE GROUP EXPOSED TO SHORT TERM GRAVE-YARD TESTS

Bamboo is a giant grass and not a tree. Bamboo completes its growth within some months and matures at the age of around three years, there is no secondary growth. This research was conducted to determine the natural durability and physical properties of Gigantochloa Scortechinii. The durability of Gigantochloa Scortechinii was analyzed based on weight loss of samples. Soil buried testing was conducted to analyze the durability of Gigantochloa Scortechinii samples. The parameter involved is weight loss of samples from different age group after testing. In physical properties research, tests were including the moisture content and basic density. The mean value of moisture content for 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 years old are 50.10%, 44.15%, 25.67%, 22.26% and 23.32% respectively. Mean values of basic density for 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years old are 0.56 gcm ⁻³, 0.71 gcm⁻³, 0.69 gcm-3, 0.68 gm-3 and 0.83 gm-3 respectively. While for the natural durability, the mean percentage weight loss was in range 1.95% to 27.87% for all ages and the location along the culms. Generally, it can be concluded that the moisture content of Gigantochloa Scortechinii significantly decreased within the increment of age and internodes from bottom to the top portion. Since the moisture content reduced, the basic density gave an opposite results. Grave-yard test, the sample weight loss studies have shown positive results of samples used have decrease in weight.