TORONOTO:
Researchers plan to retrofit a school building in quake-prone
Uttarakhand with a novel concrete coating that can dramatically enhance the earthquakeresistance of seismically vulnerable
structures.
The seismic-resistant,
fibre-reinforced concrete developed at the University of British Columbia (UBC)
in Canada will see its first real-life application as part of the seismic
retrofit of a Vancouver elementary school.
The material is engineered
at the molecular scale to be strong, malleable, and ductile, similar to steel -
capable of dramatically enhancing the earthquake resistance of a seismically
vulnerable structure when applied as a thin coating on the surfaces.
Researchers subjected the
material, called eco-friendly ductile cementitious composite (EDCC), to
earthquake simulation tests using intensities as high as the magnitude 9.0 9.1
earthquake that struck Tohoku, Japan in 2011.
"We sprayed a number
of walls with a 10 millimetre-thick layer of EDCC, which is sufficient to
reinforce most interior walls against seismic shocks," said Salman
Soleimani- Dashtaki, a PhD candidate at UBC.
"Then we subjected
them to Tohoku-level quakes and other types and intensities of earthquakes -
and we could not break them," said Soleimani-Dashtaki.
The research was funded by
UBC-hosted Canada-India Research Centre of Excellence IC-IMPACTS, which promotes
research collaboration between Canada and India.
IC-IMPACTS will make EDCC
available to retrofit a school in Roorkee in Uttarakhand, a highly seismic
area, researchers said.
"This technology is gaining significant
attention in India and will provide our Canadian companies a strong competitive
edge in the growing global infrastructureBSE 0.00 %market,"
said UBC professor Nemy Banthia, who supervised the work.
EDCC combines cement with
polymer-based fibres, flyash and other industrial additives, making it highly
sustainable, according to Banthia.
"By replacing nearly
70 per cent of cement with flyash, an industrial byproduct, we can reduce the
amount of cement used," said Banthia.
"This
is quite an urgent requirement as one tonne of cement production releases
almost a tonne of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and the cement industry
produces close to seven per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions,"
Banthia added.
Source:
