Six- Lakh Home From IIT Madras

8/13/2019 Six- Lakh Home From IIT Madras

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Chennai: Devdas Menon, Professor in Department of Civil Engineering - IIT Madras,

explains how they came about building a flat that could create affordable housing for

masses.

India has a severe housing shortage problem, which is well known. In particular, there is a

need to address the shelter needs of the lower income groups and their aspirations. The

challenge is to make these aspirations a reality, by providing for an affordable

solution. Ideally, the solution should be scalable - to reach the masses - and should be

quickly built, and at the same time addresses issues of sustainability and quality. Clearly,

we need a 'game changer' in the housing industry. (In pics: the six- lakh home from IIT

Madras)

We believe that the technology proposed by IIT Madras, and demonstrated recently by the

construction of the 'GFRG demo building', has the potential to meet this challenge of

providing rapid affordable mass housing.

Advantages over conventional buildings:

- High speed of construction: GFRG demo building with four flats in two storeys (total

1981 sq.ft.) built within a month!

- Less built-up area for the same carpet area: wall panels are only 124mm thick.

- Less embodied energy and carbon footprint: significant reduction in use of cement,

sand, steel and water; recycling of industrial waste gypsum.

- Lower cost of structure: savings in materials; no plastering.

- Lower building weight (panels weigh only 43 kg/m2), contributing to savings infoundation and reduction in design for earthquake forces, particularly in multi-storeyed

construction.

- Buildings up to 8-10 storeys can be designed using this load-bearing system, without the

need for beams and columns.

- Excellent finishes of prefabricated GFRG panels - used for all the walls, floors and

staircases, with minimal embedded concrete: no need for additional plastering.

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The 'model housing apartment', comprising four flats in a two-storeyed building, has been

constructed inside the IIT-M campus within a month at a finished cost that works out

to Rs. 1250 per sq. ft. (including excellent finishes). The 'GFRG demo building' was

inaugurated today by Sri TKA Nair, Advisor to Honourable Prime Minister of India, in the

presence of Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras.

Since 2003, the IITM research team had conducted extensive studies on the use of these

panels as structural members for all components of the building, including earthquake

resistant design. These panels, originally developed by RBS Australia, were intended as

wall panels ('Rapidwall') suitable for rapid erection of walls in buildings to carry gravity

loads. The panels are made of calcined gypsum plaster, combined with special additives

and glass fibres, to produce GFRG panels - 12m long, 3m high and 124mm thick (with

hollow cavities). The IITM research group extended the application of this product for the

entire building system - including floors, roofs, and staircases, thus significantly reducing the

consumption of Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC). The team also collaborated in the

indigenous development of an excellent water-proofing material, which is essential forprolonged durability of the GFRG panels, especially in the case of roofs and toilets.

The GFRG panels for the 'demo building' at IIT Madras have come from the plant of FACT-

RCF Building Products Ltd, Kochi, using reprocessed gypsum from FACT. The building has

four units, making up a total built-up area of 1981 sq.ft - two flats with a carpet area of 269

sq.ft. each, intended for the economically weaker section (EWS), and another two, with a

carpet area of 497 sq.ft. each, intended for the low-income group (LIG). The plans can be

replicated horizontally (in plan) and vertically (in elevation) in mass housing projects. This

demonstration building will also be used by another research group at IITM Madras working

on decentralized solar photovoltaic systems with Direct Current (DC) appliances, todemonstrate savings in electrical energy consumption.

The panels are prefabricated and cut to desired sizes based on room dimensions with

openings for doors and windows, thus making rapid construction possible. A panel has two

skins of 15 mm thickness that are interconnected at regular intervals (250 mm) with 20 mm

thick ribs. The cavities formed by these interconnections can be used for several purposes -

filling with concrete, and laying electrical conduits and plumbing pipes.

Filling the cavities with concrete increases the vertical load-carrying capacity almost tenfold,

and inserting vertical steel bars in these cavities, contributes to their earthquake

resistance. In a multi-storeyed building, the number of concrete-filled cavities and steel

bars can be reduced at the higher floor levels. When used as floor slabs, reinforced

concrete beams can be embedded and hidden in some of the cavities, as per the

design. The overall weight of the structure and consumption of concrete comes down

significantly. Conventional plastering is eliminated.



The research work has resulted in two PhD theses, and two PhD scholars are currently

continuing the R&D efforts. The Department of Science and Technology, Government of

India, had awarded a research grant of Rs. 1.32 crores to complete the research work and

bring it to a stage of technology transfer.

The panels may be unfilled, partially filled or fully filled with reinforced concrete, as per the

structural requirement. Experimental studies and research have shown that GFRG panels,

suitably filled with reinforced concrete, possess substantial strength to act not only as load-

bearing elements, but also as shear walls, capable of resisting lateral loads due to

earthquake and wind. It is possible to design such buildings up to ten storeys in low seismic

zones (and to lesser height in high seismic zones). However, such construction needs to be

properly designed by a qualified structural engineer.

The GFRG demo building also demonstrates the use of an innovative waterproofing

treatment using a nano-technology based solution, developed by Zydex Industries,

Vadodara, for the specifications evolved by IIT Madras.

Based on the research work carried out at IIT Madras, and the research reported elsewhere

(Australia and China), Building Materials & Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC),

Government of India, has accorded approval of GFRG panels for construction in India.

Six- Lakh Home From IIT Madras

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