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Science & Tech.
Pradeep Kumar

24/08/21 09:00 AM IST

Future Earthquake-resistant Buildings

In news

Thermocol could be the material of the future for construction of earthquake-resistant buildings, with thermal insulation and could also save energy required to develop construction materials.

Details
  • Researchers at IIT Roorkee have found that thermocol or Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) is used as a composite material in core of reinforced concrete sandwich, could resist earthquake forces on up to four-storey buildings.
  • The researchers tested a full-scale building and a number of wall elements constructed with thermocol sandwiched between two layers of concrete at the National Seismic Test Facility (NSTF) of the Department of Earthquake Engineering, IIT Roorkee, developed under Fund for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure (FIST) programme of Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India. 
  • The investigation was supplemented with detailed computer simulation of a realistic 4-storey building. 
The technique
  • In this technique, the EPS core and the wire mesh reinforcement is produced in a factory.
  • The building skeleton is first erected from the factory-made core and reinforcement panels, and then concrete is sprayed on the skeleton core.
  • This technique does not require any shuttering and hence can be constructed very fast.
Significance
  • Besides resisting earthquakes, the use of expanded polystyrene core in concrete walls of a building can result in thermal comfort.
  • The core provides the necessary insulation against the heat transfer between building interior and exterior environment.
  • This can help in keeping the building interiors cool in hot environments and warm during cold conditions.
  • India suffers a large variation of temperature in different parts of the country and during different seasons of the year.
  • Therefore, thermal comfort is a crucial consideration along with structural safety.
  • The technology also has the potential of saving construction material and energy, with an overall reduction in carbon footprint of buildings.
  • It replaces a large portion of concrete volume from the walls and floor/roof.
Source: PIB

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