Build to sustain flood-like situations

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…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’SOUZA