On Monday, April 20, Economic Affairs Minister Kamp visited SealteQ’s headquarters in Stadskanaal to attend a presentation regarding an innovation in the field of preventive reinforcement of masonry in earthquake zones.
OWS is the organizer of this meeting.
The OWS consortium consists of the Groningen companies Oosterhof Holman, Van Wijnen and SealteQ. Entirely anchored in the region, the consortium has more than 500 salaried employees residing in the area. OWS was motivated at the time by the specific situation in the province of Groningen regarding the earthquake problem and the related quake-proofing of homes. Defining characteristics of the area are:
unique stone type / Groningen masonry;
specific soil conditions;
induced quakes relatively close to the earth’s surface.
Much research has been done worldwide on ways to make buildings quake-resistant(more). However, the specific situation in Groningen mentioned above is not found in any of the studies. As part of regional involvement, we joined forces at the end of 2013 to solve this problem, in-house and at our own expense, using our own knowledge and innovative capacity.
Our objectives for developing a reinforcement system are:
no casualties in the event of ground acceleration due to an earthquake of 0.6 PGA;
total reinforcement costs less than 40% of the WOZ value per dwelling;
while reinforcing, no other dwelling is necessary for the residents;
at the same time, if possible, carry out a building physics optimization;
match the strength of a quake-resistant new building.
We have sought the cooperation of TU Delft and TU Eindhoven as knowledge partners in order to effectively test in practice the acquired scientific knowledge regarding the quake capacity of reinforced and unreinforced masonry. The starting points for the preventive reinforcement (in terms of material choice) are:
lightweight (no increase in total mass of object);
create cohesion between the various building components / building blocks;
ductile material properties (strength / toughness retention during deformation).
We have now succeeded in converting the above objectives into a technical solution through practical tests within a year and a half, which at component level meets the current standard for quake-resistant new construction (NPR). The in-house developed system gives a significant reinforcement of existing masonry (at least a factor of 12 increase in PGA absorbing capacity). The exploratory calculations have now been validated by TU Delft and are expected to be further validated by TU Eindhoven in collaboration with TU Delft at the end of May 2015.
A significant part of the developed products can be produced and processed in the region. This guarantees a sustainable regional economic stimulus. This is quite apart from the possibility of marketing the system internationally.
Partly due to the quick turnaround and motivated cooperation between science, government and OWS, it is possible to reinforce significant numbers of homes (1,000-1,500 homes in 2015) in the short term (from July/August 2015).