Abstract
Earthquake-resistant and economical housing is the most desirable need in rural areas of developing countries. These regions often suffer significant loss of life during a seismic event. To enable an efficient and cost-effective solution, a new concept of construction, i.e. a wallette of interlocking blocks with movability at the interface and rope reinforcement, is investigated. The novel interlocking block is made of coconut fibre reinforced concrete (CFRC). The reason for using coconut fibre is their highest toughness amongst natural fibres. This paper describes the in-plane behaviour of the interlocking wallette under earthquake loadings. The wallette response is measured in terms of induced acceleration, block uplift, top maximum relative displacement and rope tension. The applied earthquake loadings cannot produce any damage in the structure, i.e. blocks and/or ropes. The response of the wallette is explained in detail along with correlation of materials aspect with structural behaviour.
Highlights
It was concluded that the slabs were not affected by the acid or sulphate environment and the durability of the proposed coir rope reinforced bio-composite concrete panels was good
A scaled wallette is tested under the different earthquake loadings
The mortar-free wallette consists of newly developed interlocking blocks and coconut-fibre rope reinforcement
Summary
Earthquake has been one of the most hazardous threats that have caused collapse of houses and resulted in fatalities. The main reasons include the poor quality of the materials and inadequate overall strength of the structure because of old traditional construction techniques [1]. These fatalities decreased a lot in the developed countries during the second half of 20th century. This is due to the technology developed for building seismic-resistant houses. It requires expensive materials like steel reinforcement that results in costly housing These costly materials cannot be used in developing or underdeveloped countries at large scale especially in rural areas, because people cannot afford it. One key aspect is to reduce the material cost considerably and another is to develop a construction technology to be adopted in seismic prone rural regions
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