Rapid wall is an alternative building material that can replace bricks or concrete blocks. It is made of glass fiber reinforced gypsum (GFRG) and is a large load-bearing panel with modular cavities that is suitable for both external and internal walls. Rapid wall panels have advantages over traditional materials like being lighter weight, stronger, and more resistant to fire, heat, water, and corrosion. The panels are hollow and large in size, and can be filled with concrete or used without filling depending on the structural loads.

1. Efficient Building Material-Rapid Wall 1
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Rapid wall is an alternative building material to
replace bricks or concrete blocks. This study deals with the
physical properties of GFRG Panel and finding out the suitable
fillermaterials to increase its strength as well as to decrease the
temperature built up inside.
Index Terms—GFRG, Rapidwall, Panel, Urban, dismal
I. INTRODUCTION
APID WALL, also called GFRG(Glass Fiber Reinforced
gypsum)panel is an energy efficient green building
material with huge potential for use as load bearing and non
load bearing wall panels. Rapidwall is a large load bearing
panel with modular cavities suitable for both external and
internal walls. It can also be used as intermediary floor
slab/roof slab in combination with RCC as a composite
material. Since the advent of innovative Rapidwall panel
in1990 in Australia, it has been used for buildings ranging
from single storey to medium - high rise buildings. Light
weighted Rapidwall has high compressive strength, shearing
strength, flexural strength and ductility. It has very high level
of resistance to fire, heat, water, termites, rot and corrosion.
Concrete infill with vertical reinforcement rods enhances its
vertical and lateral load capabilities.
.
II. WHAT IS A GFRG PANEL?
GFRG building panel is a very versatile eco-friendly
building material manufactured utilizing industrial waste
phosphogypsum.It is reinforced with high technology glass
fibers to improve its tensile strength / ductility. Panels are
hollow panels of size 12.0 m x 2.85m with overall thickness of
124 mm as shown in Fig.1. It can be used for walls as well as
for slabs. The panels can be easily cut to any sizes depending
on the room size. Cut outs in the wall panels to accommodate
door and window frames can also be done. The cavities in the
wall panel make the buildings made of these panels thermally
more comfortable. It is resistant to water and fire. These
panels have many other advantages compared to other
conventional building materials. GFRG panels can be used as
walling elements, as flooring / roofing element as well as
compound walls / security walls.
A. Range of uses
Most common use of GFRG panel is as load bearing walls.
Cavities of walls can be unfilled or can be filled with concrete
or reinforced concrete as shown in Fig.2 depending on the
load coming on to the panels.
Generally panels without filling might be sufficient to carry
loads due to two storeys. For additional floors, the wall panels
have to be strengthened with concrete infilling or with
reinforced concrete infilling depending on the intensity of load
acting on the wall panels. In the case of conventional framed
constructions with beams and columns, GFRG panels without
filling can be used as filler walls. The portion of the GFRG
panels above the door / window openings can act like lintels,
without filling for small openings of doors and windows or
Study of an Efficient Building Material-
Rapid Wall (March 2016)
Aizel Antony SEM VI student, KMEA College of Architecture
R

2. Efficient Building Material-Rapid Wall 2
with reinforced concrete filling for large openings of doors
and windows in the case of internal walls. But for external
doors / windows sunshade shall be provided always. Then the
lintels can be of reinforced concrete only. Panels without
concrete infilling is ideally suited to use as roofing element in
a pitched roof of low income group housing. Pitched roofing
with or without reinforced concrete micro beams can also be
covered with Mangalore Tiles for architectural considerations.
GFRG panels can be used as flooring / flat roofing with
reinforced micro beams.
.
B. Size
Rapidwall panel is world’s largest load bearing lightweight
panels. The panels are manufactured with size 12m length, 3m
height and 124 mm thickness. Each panel has 48 modular
cavities of 230 mm x 94 mm x 3m dimension. The weight of
one panel is 1440 kg or 40 kg/sqm. The density is 1.14g/cm3,
being only 10-12% of the weight of comparable concrete
/brick masonry. The other relevant physical and material
properties of the Panel are given in the table
C. Transportation
Panels are pre-cut in the factory to specified dimensions for
construction. Openings for doors and windows are cut in the
factory. Panels do not expand or contract like brick or
concrete and can be cut to within a 5mm tolerance.
Rapidwall Panels are transported by either a stillage or
open top container. A transport stillage can carry between
five and eight Panels. An open top container can carry up to
500 square metres of RapidwalPanel. Panels are unloaded by
a crane.
III. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
Waste i.e. gypsum is used as a resource, making it very
economical .Construction rate is very fast as it changes from
brick by brick construction to wall by wall construction. It was
formed as a Green Alternative Technology thus becoming
Environment Friendly. It uses very less Sand, Steel and Water
Building is fire resistant, earthquake resistant. There is only a
need of less labour force. Weight of structure is very less.
More carpet area for same built up area. No need of beams and
columns making it more economical. There is no need of
plastering thus cost can be saved in finishing. Some of its
disadvantages are it needs skilled labours, transportation cost
is high, same module are repeated
IV. CONSTRUCTION
A. Foundation
A conventional foundation like spread footing, RCC
column footing, raft or pile foundation is used as per the soil
condition and load factors. All around the building RCC plinth
beam is provided at basement plinth level. For erection of
panel as wall, 12 mm dia vertical reinforcement called “starter
bars” of 0.75m length of which 0.45m protrudes up and
remaining portion with 0.15m angle is placed into the RCC
plinth beams before casting. These bars are kept at a distance
of 1m centre to centre to match the cavities of the panel.
B. Superstructure
Pre-cut panels are brought to the construction site. Panels
are kept over the starter bars on the plinth beamusing cranes.
Grooves are cut into the panels at every joints to facilitate
integral bonding. Appropriate reinforcement bars are inserted
as per design into the cavities. These reinforcements are then
tied to the starter bars. Verticality of panels are checked and
then cavities having reinforcements are filled with concrete. It
is mandatory to reinforce and fill all the joints with concrete.
Other cavities can be filled with any inert materials (e.g.
quarry dust mixed with 5% cement and water)
V. CONCLUSION
This paper projects mainly its efficiency for using it as a
building material. As it is more economic, durable and strong.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I would like to thank my Prof. Ar.Anjith Augustine for
supporting the development of this paper and its findings.

3. Efficient Building Material-Rapid Wall 3
REFERENCES
Basic format for books:
[1] https://www.gypsum.org/technical/using-gypsum-board-for-walls-and-
ceilings/using-gypsum-board-for-walls-and-ceilings-section-i/
[2] https://www.google.co.in/search?rlz=1C1DFOC_enIN598IN598&biw=
1517&bih=692&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=rapid+wall+panels+filled+with+
conccrete&oq=rapid+wall+panels+filled+with+conccrete&gs_l=img.3
...1144440.1151442.0.1151884.22.19.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1c.1.64.img..2
2.0.0.xhRdmtFW0us&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.&bvm=bv.122129774,d.dGo&d
pr=0.9&ech=1&psi=qx4-
V4vKIIm00gTxlpLoDg.1463688871954.3&ei=qx4-
V4vKIIm00gTxlpLoDg&emsg=NCSR&noj=1
[3] https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/NI051508/filing-history
[4] http://www.indianrealestateboard.com/forums/showthread.php/13705-
Pre-Fabricated-Walls-RapidWall
[5] FBRL gypsum wall construction manual