Rebars technology in India need to be upgraded to international standards

Sunday, 19 Jun, 2011

In the past 40 odd years, the construction industry in India has seen plenty of changes in structures, methods and designs. But the basic building blocks continue to be the same and in the case of steel rebars, dangerously outdated. Steel Reinforcement Myths and Reality, a seminar conducted by and for representatives of the steel industry, discussed the desirable properties in rebars. The seminar drew attention to issues like the continued use of the outdated CTD (Cold Twisted Deformed) rebars by most builders; the need to switch over to high strength, high ductility rebars, as about 60% of India including Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Thane, Kutch and many other parts of North and North-East India fall under the high risk seismic zones 3, 4 and 5. Discussing the misconceptions about earthquake resistant steel rebars and X-pattern ribs on rebars, it was estimated that a potential INR 8000 crores per year could be saved if the rebars are upgraded to match present international standards. FE 415 is the only type of steel rebars that builders have been using for the past several decades, without stopping to assimilate international up gradations. The industry needs to be educated in distinguishing between the spurious bar and the real bar. If the per capita consumption of steel in a country is above 250 kilograms, it is a developed nation; if it is between 50 to 250 kilograms, it is a developing nation; and anything below 50 kilograms points to an underdeveloped country. In India, the per capita consumption is only 50 kilograms, because our growth has been centered on urban areas, completely ignoring the vast rural expanse, where the per capita consumption is a mere two kilograms. Today, the steel industry is aspiring to produce 300 million tonnes of steel, of which only 35% (roughly 60 million tonnes) is constituted by rebars, which needs to be urgently increased with improved quality. The Indian Standard approval of spurious TMT steel reinforcement bars was another important issue discussed in the seminar. The (IS): 1786-2008 has stated that a steel rebar cannot be rejected on the basis of non uniform peripheral quenching, thus allowing the use of improper TMT quenching technology in construction. Despite buildings built out of the faulty CTD bars requiring repairs within just five or six years, builders continue to use them in all their projects, placing the occupants of such buildings under huge threat during earthquakes. Speakers dealt with the need for the IS to specify the same level of high ductility for rebars, irrespective of their yield strength, as in European countries; and specify higher values of elongation and stress ratio for rebars used in earthquake prone regions. Further glitches in the IS certification for steel rebars include the undue importance given to elongation at fracture, instead of uniform elongation of the rebars. This can mean a serious threat to people living in buildings built with such rebars, located on geographical fault lines. Several countries have already shifted to uniform elongation of rebars in the past five years. Also, the IS code strangely specifies different chemical compositions for seven different rebar grades. A new German technology, Thermex Quenching and Self Tempering', was agreed upon as the way forward for the steel industry worldwide. This technology enables the production of steel rebars with high strength, that meet all construction requirements like yield strength of 500MPa or more, toughness, ductility, weldability and good bend properties.

These properties prevent the steel bars from snapping completely and leading to total collapse of the building like what happened during the earthquake at Bhuj in 2001. It was also unanimously felt that the IS codes need immediate revision, in order to keep pace with global standards. (Sourced from HINDU) For more news visit at www.steelguru.com 1