IIT Roorkee develops technique to use plastic bottles for mitigating quake damage

Researchers said if fibre from waste plastic bottles is mixed with soil in a particular ratio, it will help minimise damage during earthquakes by strengthening the soil of that area.  

Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee have developed a technique to use waste plastic bottles to mitigate earthquake damage. According to researchers at IIT Roorkee, if fibre from waste plastic bottles is mixed with soil in a particular ratio, it will help minimise damage during earthquakes by strengthening the soil of that area, The Times of India reported. 

According to Prof Satyendra Mittal, principal investigator of the project, the use of plastic fibres for soil reinforcement helps in “mitigation of the liquefaction phenomenon in embankments, slopes, man-made fills or other geotechnical structures”. 

The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Geotextiles and Geomembranes under the title “Use of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibres for mitigating the liquefaction-induced failures.” Sanjay Kumar Shukla and Arpit Jain were also members of the research team. 

During an earthquake, the soil where water levels are not too deep starts behaving like a liquid. This phenomenon is called liquefication. The researchers said PET fibres enhance the liquefaction resistance of fine sand. Around 2 kg PET fibres can be mixed with 100 kg sand or soil to reinforce the strength of the soil in an area by 40 to 60 per cent. Losses caused by earthquakes in such soil can be more than 70 per cent less in comparison to normal soil, they said. 

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