Wallpaper to resist earthquakes
Experiment in Pavia. A badly damaged building is reinforced with the seismic carpet to be placed on a vibrating table for testing the intelligent composite seismic wallpaper. © Moritz Urban???aural:Bildende???
Researchers at the Institute for Solid Construction and Building Materials Technology at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed an "intelligent composite seismic wallpaper". The Institute Solid Construction Department designed the wallpaper to reinforce the walls of buildings in earthquake regions. The idea behind the new fabric, consisting of textile material with four different directions of fi bres that is embedded in mortar, is to stabilise buildings damaged by earthquakes and make them fit for use again. However, the textile-mortar reinforcement system can also serve to protect intact buildings as a preventive measure. And it is generally suitable to fill in and bridge cracks in buildings caused, for example, by subsidence.
The KIT researchers are now testing the reinforcement system on a badly damaged building in Pavia/Italy. The architecture of the house and its material are based on buildings typical of the Abruzzi region and the City of L’Aquila, hit by a powerful earthquake in April 2009. In a large-scale experiment, the house is being reinforced with the seismic wallpaper to then be placed on a vibrating table simulating an earthquake.
The seismic wallpaper is the work of a group of partners in science and industry around the Italian fi rm of D’Appolonia S.p.A. in the context of the EU POLTECT (Polyfunctional Technical Textiles against Natural Hazards) project to develop intelligent textiles for construction as an earthquake protection measure. At the recent JEC Composites Show, a composite materials trade fair, a jury of international experts chose KIT and its partners for the JEC Innovation Award 2010 in construction and structural engineering in recognition of the new reinforcement system.
More information: www.kit.edu
Contact: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Monika Landgraf monika.landgraf@kit.edu
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