Build to sustain flood-like situations

01 Jun 2019 CW Team

Apart from resistance to axial compression and out-of-plane bending, glass fibre-reinforced gypsum (GFRG) panels with reinforced concrete infills are also efficient in resisting in-plane bending and shear generated by lateral loads owing to earthquakes, and exhibit ductile behaviour under cyclic loading. Dr A Meher Prasad, Professor, Structural Engineering Division, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras, shares more鈥�

This capability is essential, especially in an earthquake prone country like India. Significant research on the seismic behaviour of GFRG wall panels has been undertaken at IIT-Madras by subjecting the panels and building units to monotonic and cyclic lateral loading.

In 2018, the severe floods in Kerala left a trail of destruction and resulted in the need to construct a large number of homes in the state. During the floods, houses constructed using GFRG were found unaffected even as others constructed with conventional technology were damaged.

- SERAPHINA D鈥橲OUZA

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