Bamboo has been widely utilized as a load bearing material in building construction since ancient times by taking advantage of its excellent mechanical performances under loading as well as its low density and rapid growth. Applications of bamboo to engineering, architecture, and infrastructure require an in-depth understanding of the relationship between its morphology and mechanics, including how this regularly spaced segmental structure adapts to taking the applied loads. However, previous research on buckling behavior of structural bamboo considered it as a homogenous tube without multiscale structural features, and no reasonable explanation for the regular segment length was proposed. Here, we have implemented representative volume elements within the framework of finite element analysis to study the mechanical response of a bamboo culm under axial compressive load and systematically investigated how the bamboo's hierarchical structural features (e.g., gradient fiber distribution, periodic nodes, and others) contribute to its compression capacity. We find that column buckling is a critical failure mode that leads to the collapse of the entire structure, which can be disastrous. We observe that the gradient fiber distribution pattern along the radial direction significantly contributes to its strength. We find that the occurrence of fiber deviation at the node region reduces the strength of bamboo. Nevertheless, our results show that structural features such as external ridge and internal diaphragm play the role of reinforcement while the effect is more significant for bamboo than other plants with similar node appearance. Our work provides structural insights into the outstanding mechanics of bamboo. Such information could provide a guide for engineers to predict the material mechanics according to its structure, design bamboo-inspired composite materials, and construct high-performance architectures with bamboo accordingly.

自远古以来，竹子就凭借其在负载下的出色机械性能以及低密度和快速生长的优势，被广泛用作建筑结构的承重材料。竹子在工程，建筑和基础设施中的应用需要深入了解其形态与力学之间的关系，包括这种规则间隔的扇形结构如何适应承受的载荷。然而，先前对结构竹的屈曲行为的研究认为它是没有多尺度结构特征的均质管，并且没有提出合理的解释规则节段长度的方法。这里，我们在有限元分析框架内实现了具有代表性的体积元素，以研究竹杆在轴向压缩载荷下的机械响应，并系统地研究了竹的分层结构特征（例如，梯度纤维分布，周期性节点等）如何对它的压缩能力。我们发现列屈曲是一种关键的失效模式，会导致整个结构的崩溃，这可能是灾难性的。我们观察到沿径向方向的梯度纤维分布模式显着有助于其强度。我们发现在节点区域出现纤维偏移会降低竹子的强度。不过，我们的结果表明，外脊和内internal等结构特征起到了增强作用，而竹子的效果比其他具有相似节外观的植物更为显着。我们的工作提供了有关竹子杰出力学的结构见解。这些信息可以为工程师提供指导，以根据其结构预测材料力学，设计灵感源自竹子的复合材料以及相应地使用竹子构建高性能的体系结构。