Rapidwall

Efficient Building Material-Rapid Wall

Rapid wall is an alternative building material to replace bricks or concrete blocks. This study deals with the physical properties of GFRG Panel and finding out the suitable filler materials to increase its strength as well as to decrease the temperature built up inside.

Index Terms—GFRG, Rapidwall, Panel, Urban, dismal

I. INTRODUCTION

APID WALL, also called GFRG(Glass Fiber Reinforced gypsum)panel is an energy efficient green building

material with huge potential for use as load bearing and non load bearing wall panels. Rapidwall is a large load bearing panel with modular cavities suitable for both external and internal walls. It can also be used as intermediary floor slab/roof slab in combination with RCC as a composite material. Since the advent of innovative Rapidwall panel in1990 in Australia, it has been used for buildings ranging from single storey to medium - high rise buildings. Light weighted Rapidwall has high compressive strength, shearing strength, flexural strength and ductility. It has very high level of resistance to fire, heat, water, termites, rot and corrosion. Concrete infill with vertical reinforcement rods enhances its vertical and lateral load capabilities.

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II.WHAT IS A GFRG PANEL? GFRG building panel is a very versatile eco-friendly

building material manufactured utilizing industrial waste phosphogypsum.It is reinforced with high technology glass fibers to improve its tensile strength / ductility. Panels are hollow panels of size 12.0 m x 2.85m with overall thickness of 124 mm as shown in Fig.1. It can be used for walls as well as for slabs. The panels can be easily cut to any sizes depending on the room size. Cut outs in the wall panels to accommodate door and window frames can also be done. The cavities in the wall panel make the buildings made of these panels thermally more comfortable. It is resistant to water and fire. These

panels have many other advantages compared to other conventional building materials. GFRG panels can be used as walling elements, as flooring / roofing element as well as compound walls / security walls.

A. Range of uses Most common use of GFRG panel is as load bearing walls.

Cavities of walls can be unfilled or can be filled with concrete or reinforced concrete as shown in Fig.2 depending on the load coming on to the panels.

Generally panels without filling might be sufficient to carry loads due to two storeys. For additional floors, the wall panels have to be strengthened with concrete infilling or with reinforced concrete infilling depending on the intensity of load acting on the wall panels. In the case of conventional framed constructions with beams and columns, GFRG panels without filling can be used as filler walls. The portion of the GFRG panels above the door / window openings can act like lintels, without filling for small openings of doors and windows or with reinforced concrete filling for large openings of doors and windows in the case of internal walls. But for external doors / windows sunshade shall be provided always. Then the lintels can be of reinforced concrete only. Panels without concrete infilling is ideally suited to use as roofing element in a pitched roof of low income group housing. Pitched roofing

Study of an Efficient Building Material-Rapid Wall (March 2016)

Aizel Antony SEM VI student, KMEA College of Architecture

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with or without reinforced concrete micro beams can also be covered with Mangalore Tiles for architectural considerations. GFRG panels can be used as flooring / flat roofing with reinforced micro beams.

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B. SizeRapidwall panel is world’s largest load bearing lightweight

panels. The panels are manufactured with size 12m length, 3m height and 124 mm thickness. Each panel has 48 modular cavities of 230 mm x 94 mm x 3m dimension. The weight of one panel is 1440 kg or 40 kg/sqm. The density is 1.14g/cm3, being only 10-12% of the weight of comparable concrete /brick masonry. The other relevant physical and material properties of the Panel are given in the table

C.TransportationPanels are pre-cut in the factory to specified dimensions for construction. Openings for doors and windows are cut in the factory. Panels do not expand or contract like brick or concrete and can be cut to within a 5mm tolerance. Rapidwall Panels are transported by either a stillage or open top container. A transport stillage can carry between five and eight Panels. An open top container can carry up to 500 square metres of RapidwalPanel. Panels are unloaded by a crane.

III. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Waste i.e. gypsum is used as a resource, making it very economical .Construction rate is very fast as it changes from brick by brick construction to wall by wall construction. It was formed as a Green Alternative Technology thus becoming Environment Friendly. It uses very less Sand, Steel and WaterBuilding is fire resistant, earthquake resistant. There is only a need of less labour force. Weight of structure is very less. More carpet area for same built up area. No need of beams and

columns making it more economical. There is no need of plastering thus cost can be saved in finishing. Some of its disadvantages are it needs skilled labours, transportation cost is high, same module are repeated

IV. CONSTRUCTION

A. Foundation A conventional foundation like spread footing, RCC

column footing, raft or pile foundation is used as per the soil condition and load factors. All around the building RCC plinth beam is provided at basement plinth level. For erection of panel as wall, 12 mm dia vertical reinforcement called “starter bars” of 0.75m length of which 0.45m protrudes up and remaining portion with 0.15m angle is placed into the RCC plinth beams before casting. These bars are kept at a distance of 1m centre to centre to match the cavities of the panel.

B. Superstructure

Pre-cut panels are brought to the construction site. Panels are kept over the starter bars on the plinth beam using cranes. Grooves are cut into the panels at every joints to facilitate integral bonding. Appropriate reinforcement bars are inserted as per design into the cavities. These reinforcements are then tied to the starter bars. Verticality of panels are checked and then cavities having reinforcements are filled with concrete. It is mandatory to reinforce and fill all the joints with concrete.

Other cavities can be filled with any inert materials (e.g. quarry dust mixed with 5% cement and water)

V. CONCLUSION

This paper projects mainly its efficiency for using it as a building material. As it is more economic, durable and strong.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to thank my Prof. Ar.Anjith Augustine for supporting the development of this paper and its findings.

REFERENCES

Basic format for books:[1] https://www.gypsum.org/technical/using-gypsum-board-for-walls-and-

ceilings/using-gypsum-board-for-walls-and-ceilings-section-i/

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[2] https://www.google.co.in/search?rlz=1C1DFOC_enIN598IN598&biw=1517&bih=692&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=rapid+wall+panels+filled+with+conccrete&oq=rapid+wall+panels+filled+with+conccrete&gs_l=img.3...1144440.1151442.0.1151884.22.19.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1c.1.64.img..22.0.0.xhRdmtFW0us&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.&bvm=bv.122129774,d.dGo&dpr=0.9&ech=1&psi=qx4-V4vKIIm00gTxlpLoDg.1463688871954.3&ei=qx4-V4vKIIm00gTxlpLoDg&emsg=NCSR&noj=1

[3] https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/NI051508/filing-history

[4] http://www.indianrealestateboard.com/forums/showthread.php/13705-Pre-Fabricated-Walls-RapidWall

[5] FBRL gypsum wall construction manual

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Engineering

Rapidwall