Bengaluru: A group of budding engineers from the city has developed a low-cost, environmentally-friendly and a sustainable way to mitigate the effect of earthquakes using tyre pieces and soil mixture, used as energy absorbents from earthquake and other tremors. This innovation by a group of four students from CMR Institute of Technology (CMRIT) aims to bring down the cost of installing safe seismic methods and to provide a sustainable solution.
The team, comprising Abhinav Anand, Abhishek K Bhagat, Akash Porwal and Harshit Suman, told Deccan Chronicle that their innovation was experimented with in the city and the results indicated that buildings could withstand earthquakes. "While we studied the shear strength aspect of soil-tyre crumbs mixture (STCM) in different types of soils in different specific gravity and varied mixing ratios, it was found to be effective in more than 60% of instances," said Abhishek.
The tests were conducted in different ongoing construction sites at Kadugodi, Kadubeesanahalli and AECS Layout, Marathahalli from October 2017 to May 2018, he said.
Harhsit said that while scrap tyre pieces are an environmental hazard because of their slow degradation process, using them for back-fill in embankment construction is a good option. "As scrap tyre pieces make an alternative material for construction and are found to increase the energy absorption capacity and shear strength for buildings, this makes it a win-win situation," he said.
At least 15-20% of the total cost for construction can also be saved by using STCM, he said. The project, which was mentored by Prof. Naresh Dixit P.S. of CMRIT, bagged the second prize in a civil engineering contest at Srishti 2018, an inter-collegiate project exhibition competition organised at Dayanand Sagar College of Engineering earlier this year.
