Panels to replace brick walls, reduce construction time
As per a new construction technology, panels made of gypsum reinforced with glass fibre can be used as load-bearing walls replacing brick in a multi-storied building. They can also be used as floor/roof in place of reinforced cement concrete (RCC) slab and these slabs are earthquake resistant too.
Rapidwall Building Systems, Australia, has developed a technology to make gypsum strong and water-resistant so that it can be used as load-bearing walls. Glass fibre is combined with gypsum plaster through calcining process and glass fibre reinforced gypsum (GFRG) panels are produced.
Now, researchers at IIT Madras by going a step further, have developed a technology to produce GFRG panels which can also be used as floor and roof, thus eliminating the use of RCC slabs. An eight-storied building, for instance, can be built using the panels as load-bearing walls, floors/roofs and staircases.
They have also developed an excellent water-proofing material for panels as waterproofing is essential for prolonged durability of the GFRG panels.
A two-floor building is being built in the IITM campus using these panels. It is expected to be ready on April 8 — just 29 days of construction after the foundation was completed.
Using this technology of IIT few other buildings (pilot projects) had been constructed in Mumbai and Cochin. But the new building demonstrates that the material can be used for cost-effective, mass-scale and quickly buildable housing, with improved water-proofing.
As the panels are prefabricated, they can be cut to required sizes based on room sizes, and used thus giving way to rapid construction.
In this kind of construction, very less amount of concrete is used which in turn decreases the total weight of the building. As the panels come with a smooth finish, there will be no need to plaster them too. Because of the lighter weight, the building is subjected to lesser earthquake forces.
Foundation cost also gets reduced with the implementation of this system. The cost spent on the new demonstration building is 25 percent lesser than that of conventional ones.
On the basis of tests conducted, the IIT researchers affirm that GFRG panels reinforced with concrete are also capable of resisting lateral loads caused by earthquakes. The GFRG has got the approval of the Building Material & Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC) to be used for construction of projects in India.
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