This Material – FasRaP – Can Make Any Structure Bomb-Resistant

Aadhya Khatri - Apr 13, 2019

The FasRaP is made from commercially available glass fibers

The idea of ready-made sheets of materials that you can stick to walls to make them more durable, even getting out of a bomb blast intact might sound like fantasy, but a team of scientists in Singapore has created just that material and they are ready to commercialize it.

On a press release on the 8^th of April, NTU (Nanyang Technological University) claimed that this creation could restore some old buildings when walls and other structure have shown signs of running down, cracks for example. The material, called Fast Wrapping Fibre Reinforced Polymer, or FasRaP for short, can be made from glass fibers, which are readily available for purchasing. The material contains a kind of resin that has the texture resembling glue. It will make sure that the sheets produced by NTU can stick to surfaces.

This creation could restore some old buildings

The team has also done a test that met the industry standards, and it turned out FasRaP could give walls and other structures it sticks bomb-resisting ability. The team put the material through an environment of two and three bars larger than the atmospheric pressure. FasRaP came out of both tests mostly intact.

Another test was conducted to measure the ability of the material against heavy loading. The result is that the material is proven to be stronger than polymer reinforced by fibers.

The tests showed that a typical bare concrete cylinder was damaged under the pressure of 52,000 kilograms. On the other hand, when a similar subject was wrapped by the new material, it could handle more than double of that load, reaching 120,000kgs before showing cracks.

For the time being, the team from NTU is working with JTC Corp to develop the material for commercial purposes. They are on the lookout for suitable projects so that they can bring their material to reality.