TREMORFLEX
Tremorflex offers a construction solution to areas devestated by seismic activity. It is able to absorb the seismic waves energy and dissipates them slowly through the system resulting in a tenfold greater resilience to damage than traditional reinforced concrete masonry walls.
Testing
Seismic testing was undertaken by Western Sydney University, using walls made from Tremorflex blockwork to show that Tremorflex walls could behave in a more ductile manner than ordinary reinforced masonry walls under dynamic loads, thereby provide a superior wall for withstanding earthquakes. In order to demonstrate this performance under controlled laboratory conditions, Flexiroc Australia commissioned WSU to investigate the ductility factor of Tremorflex walls. Ductility Factor is the basis of Earthquake design and is the ratio between the (Ultimate deformation / Yield deformation). The larger that ratio the more ductile the wall is and the more capable it is to handle earthquake loads and survive an earthquake event.
Results Tremorflex Vs Reinforced concrete Masonry
Tremorflex Wall 4:
140 width + 4 12mm steel cores
The graph above of Load vs Deflection seen after reversed cycles to +/-50mm, the wall was only pushed to the subsequent displacement target. The ductility is based on the red envelope as shown on the positive part of the hysteresis curve. The Total energy absorbed being the area under the graph Tremorflex performance is even more impressive.
Steel reinforced concrete masonry Wall:
(KC Voon et al, 2013)140 width + 5 20mm vertical and 5 10mm horizontal steel reinforcement.
The graph above shows that the yield displacement and ultimate displacement is roughly a 10th of the size of the Tremorflex wall, despite considerably more reinforcement
The photos and results above show the full extent of movement and damage in the Tremorflex walls. There was very little reinforcement with only four 12mm diameter steel bars used in the wall.