Buildings built with thermocol can resist quakes, says IITR-JMI research

Research conducted by IIT Roorkee and Jamia Millia Islamia found that thermocol or expanded polystyrene, if used as a composite material in the core of reinforced concrete sandwich, can resist earthquake forces on up to four-storey-tall buildings. 

Researchers of the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR) and Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) have found that thermocol or expanded polystyrene (EPS) could resist earthquake forces on up to four-storey buildings and thermocol could be the material of the future for the earthquake-resistant building’s construction. 

At the National Seismic Test Facility (NSTF) of the department of earthquake engineering, IIT Roorkee, researchers examined a full-scale building and several wall elements built with thermocol sandwiched between two concrete layers. The project was developed under the Fund for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure (FIST) programme of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, as per the release from the Ministry of Science and Technology. 

Adil Ahmad, research scholar (IITR) and associate professor, Faculty of Architecture & Ekistics, JMI, who conducted the tests, evaluated the behaviour of the constructions under lateral forces, as earthquakes cause a force predominantly in lateral direction. The investigation was supplemented with detailed computer simulation of a realistic four-storey building. 

Prof Yogendra Singh, IITR, said the analysis revealed that a four-storey building built with this technique is capable of resisting earthquake forces, even in most country’s seismic zones, without any additional structural support. 

They have attributed this earthquake resistance capability to the fact that the EPS layer was sandwiched between two layers of concrete having reinforcement in the form of welded wire mesh. The researchers said that the force being applied on a building during an earthquake arised due to the inertia effect and hence depended on the mass of the building. Thermocol resists earthquakes by reducing the building mass, the said. 

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