Civil engineering researchers at the University of British Columbia have taken part in a project to develop a new type of concrete, which can be sprayed onto walls with the intention of protecting buildings from being damaged in the event of even major earthquakes in a report by Digitaltrends.com
The fiber-reinforced design allows the concrete to bend, rather than fracture when it is shaken violently. In simulation tests, the eco-friendly ductile cementitious composite was able to withstand an earthquake with a magnitude equal to 9.0 – 9.1.
“We sprayed a number of walls with a 10 millimetre-thick layer of EDCC, which is sufficient to reinforce most interior walls against seismic shocks,” says Salman Soleimani-Dashtaki, a PhD candidate in the department of civil engineering at UBC. “Then we subjected them to Tohoku-level quakes and other types and intensities of earthquakes—and we couldn’t break them.”
