Glass fibre reinforced gypsum panels for sustainable construction

The tremendous housing need of India is causing the depletion of virgin building materials. In an era of scarce resources, sustainable solutions are always preferable. Glass Fibre Reinforced Gypsum (GFRG) technology is one such solution where all the structural members are constructed using hollow panels infilled with reinforced concrete (RC), as per structural design. This paper discusses the sustainability of construction using GFRG panels in terms of embodied energy and indoor thermal comfort. The case study building at IIT Madras campus was found to have lesser embodied energy compared to conventional buildings. The result is significant considering the fact that the building sector consumes 40% of the total energy in world. Also, the inside temperature was found to be lesser by 2 °C which will help in reducing the air conditioning requirement of the building and thereby the operational energy.