KEEPING INDIA’S BOOMING IT INDUSTRY WATERPROOF - CASE STUDY II
1.GPX Global Systems
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM:
GPX Global Systems builds and operates private, carrier-neutral Internet Exchanges (IX’s) and Internet Data Centers (IDC’s) in emerging, commercial markets. The company offers a world-class, carrier-neutral collocation infrastructure, and environment to clients seeking to broaden their exposure and growth into new lucrative emerging global markets. GPX operates datacenters for many Global 2000 Enterprise and Carrier clients, including Citigroup, JP Morgan, Exxon Mobil, ABM Amro, Microsoft, eBay, AOL, Google, Sprint, MCI, SBC, Deutsche Telecom, France Telecom, and many others.
One of GPX’s three gateway hubs is present in Mumbai. This hub is used by GPX’s global clients and business continuity is their chief concern. GPX Indian facility is an energy-efficient, green building certified by LEED and was a winner of the 2010 CRISIL-CREDAI Real Estate Award for ‘Most Innovative Building Design’.
The structure “Boomerang”, a 1.2 million sq ft complex at Chandivali Farm Road in Mumbai, the country’s largest single project floor plate for commercial utility.
The clients approached Sunanda’s Concrete Materials Consultancy Division, to provide a guaranteed and waterproof structure for housing their critical servers and associated IT infrastructure. This site was especially complicated due to the large floor plate of 40000 square feet.
Initial pond test uncovered a large number of leakages in the slab which were immediate points of concern for the clients whose topmost business priority was “continuous operations with zero unplanned downtime”.
A step by step analysis was carried out by Sunanda’s Concrete Materials consultancy Division, presented to the clients, approved by their International Consultants, Archway Global Systems as well as their domestic consultants, Exigo International.
KEEPING INDIA’S BOOMING IT INDUSTRY WATERPROOF - CASE STUDY I
1.Edelweiss/IBM
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM:
In 2008 Edelweiss, one of India’s leading financial service companies struck the highest deal in real estate by purchasing a 3 basement, G + 14 stored RCC building for approximately 250 crores with a built-up area of 2 lakh sq. ft. to house their corporate office. As part of their IT infrastructure, this building was also going to house Edelweiss’s main server room, battery room, electrical room, and UPS. The entire IT infrastructure for Edelweiss’s operation was designed, built, and maintained by IBM.
The structure consisted of RCC columns and PT slabs. In order to provide external glazing to the structure, extended cantilevers were cast along the entire periphery of the bldg. During June 2010 monsoon, rainwater seeped in through these extended cantilever portions which resulted in leakages in the server room and UPS area. It was also found that the existing PT slabs were porous resulting in the passage of water through the entire slab. This resulted in the shut down the mainframe thereby hampering entire trading activities of the company. Due to this major break down the clients demanded full proof waterproof system to ensure business continuity.
The clients approached Sunanda’s Concrete Materials Consultancy Division, based on our exemplary track record of delivering results. This site was especially complicated since the slab was post-tensioned and hence it was impossible to grout it. Consequently, the selection of a waterproofing system, design, implementation of a foolproof waterproofing specification, and on-job quality assurance assumes paramount importance.
Post a detailed inspection, identification of weak spots, the custom methodology was recommended, approved, and executed in a record time of 45 days.
KEEPING INDIA'S BOOMING IT INDUSTRY WATERPROOF
The Information Technology industry in India has increased its contribution to India's GDP from 6.1% in 2009-10 to 6.4% in 2010-11. According to NASSCOM, the IT–BPO sector in India aggregated revenues of US$ 88.1 billion or Rs. 4.4 lakh crores in FY2011.
The combination of several factors makes India an attractive country for foreign investors and in particular for foreign investment for internet-based businesses. India is the 5th largest economy in the world ranking above France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Russia, and has the 3rd largest GDP in the entire continent of Asia. It is also the 2nd largest among emerging nations, based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).
India's position between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal makes it the crossroads for access between Africa, the Middle East, and the rest of Asia. India's large market, growing economy and progressive government initiatives to foster IT and telecommunications growth, and significant access to global networks, make it ripe for continued growth and represents an excellent risk-reward profile for internet businesses.
Mumbai, in particular, is the largest urban center in India, it is at the heart of Indian commerce and the seat of its largest corporations, Mumbai offers one of the most robust telecommunications infrastructures within the country and has ample access to a variety of worldwide and regional submarine fiber optic cable systems. In addition, Mumbai has a large presence of multinational companies such as- Kodak, Heinz, Monsanto, Warner Bros, FedEx, Bank of America, Bankers Trust, Parke Davis, Intel, JP Morgan Chase, Kellogg, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, AIG, Exxon-Mobil, Delta, Siemens, Roche, Bayer, BASF, Philips, BP and many more.
India and Mumbai in particular have become a primary destination for offshore outsourcing as foreign companies seek to increase the efficiency of their various operations through India’s IT-BPO expertise. An increasing number of banks, brokerages, financial houses, internet companies, manufacturing companies, etc are choosing to co-locate their IT infrastructure especially data centers in India. https://www.sunandaglobal.com/article_details/keeping-india-s-booming-it-industry-waterproof
Various permutations and combinations in specifications can avoid such problems, for example, the following alternatives can be considered:
1.Give a water impermeable coating on the finished surface of IPS – Though this method can prove effective on a short-term basis, may create problems subsequently. It is observed that the coatings based on pure solvent-based polymers, though effective do not function for a larger duration due to its requirement for a thoroughly clean and dry surface. From an economic point of view also these coatings turn to be fairly expensive and basically being a costly commodity, cannot be given in a bigger thickness. These coatings also need to be taken care of for the abuse of UV rays, which involves improvising the formulations knowledgeably with proper UV-absorbent chemical inputs.
2.In order to take care of the above shortcomings, these days, polymeric cementitious coatings are more preferred the world over. These systems have better adhesion to the surfaces and can tolerate to an extent deficiency of the surface like slight wetness and micro dusting etc. The thickness of these coatings also is 8 to 10 times more than pure polymer coatings. However, in this type also, one needs to select the polymer judiciously so that the UV interaction and disintegration due to the same can be avoided.
Though the systems based on the comatrix of polymer and cement are more preferred due to its composite properties like adhesion, waterproofing, flexibility, resistance to UV rays, and improved resistance to wear and tear, a discerning specifier has to bear in mind that after all this system is a film and it is quite possible that due to any physical damage to the concrete surface underneath the coating, the coating itself can get damaged. However, by and large for inaccessible RCC slabs or terrace above, treatment is proved to be very useful and effective even in high rainfall areas like coastal regions or mountain ranges.
3.Another practical approach adopted is to incorporate these water-based polymers in the IPS itself. This increases the water impermeability of the IPS and at the same time decreases the extent of shrinkage cracks due to increase in the flexural strength of the matrix. Additionally, the use of polymers in cement concrete/ mortar is found to increase the adhesion of the concrete mortar to the surface. This integral addition of polymer in mortar is very useful and benefi
MECHANISM OF WATERPROOFING
Mechanism of Waterproofing by Proper Cement Hydration
One of the products of hydration of cement is cementgel or Tobermorite, which is formed upto water cement ratio 0.65 to 0.7. At lower w/c ratio, it is formed more and more and vice versa. This hydration product has absolutely least co-efficient of permeability, i.e., 7x10-14 cm/sec and by itself blocks the pores and capillary in the concrete. This can result into good waterproof concrete of 10-10 to 10-12 cm/sec. However, actually in practice at average job, we end up getting the permeability anywhere between 10-6 to 10-8 cm/sec. This is mainly due to uncontrolled w/c ratio, lack of curing and also other bad detailing.
Combination of Conventional and Non-Conventional Ways
Various ways of waterproofing the structures are recommended. However, a discerning client and the consultant need to study all the possible parameters, positive as well as negative, and then come to a recommendatory conclusion. Conventional ways of waterproofing are like brickbat Coba followed by IPS. Brickbat Coba is generally used to provide a slope to the treatment and the IPS layer works as an impermeable treatment by itself which also assumes the slope of brickbat coba. Though, otherwise found fairly successful; today due to speed of the work, quality of sand, inadequate curing to the concrete which is made from finer grade cement, and many other related reasons the IPS is seen to crack and disintegrate allowing an early entry to the water. The brickbat coba is not otherwise supposed to be waterproof, but on the contrary is absorbent, which accumulates the water. On saturation, the brickbat Coba attempts to transfer the water further, which generally penetrates into the slab, and penetrates more easily if the same is porous or full of cracks. As it is concrete is not by itself a fully impermeable material, and various compromises while construction can decrease the impermeability further. Needless to say, this causes unsightly leakages to begin with followed by corrosion of steel, and finally results in structural damage.
Modern-day structures are indeed more complicated than the earlier ones, which were constructed, say 20-25 years ago. Earlier, a mere conventional waterproofing treatment of terrace, toilet, bath, sinks and an old basement needed the waterproofing job. However, these days the structures are high-rise, they have large podium, car-parking lots, basements, terrace garden at each duplex flat level, corporate office gardens, flowerbeds, swimming pools at various levels, narrow ducts (Chowks) for plumbing lines and electrical lines besides conventional problems of regular large terraces. Due to unusually large heights of the structures, ensuring the quality plastering on the external surface also poses a problem, which adds to the difficulties in waterproofing. If the problems of such large structures are left unattended and uncared for at the execution stage, then the rectification becomes near impossible job adding astronomically to the cost of maintenance. Besides in several large structures like hotels or large commercial premises proper sinks are not provided in toilet and bath blocks. This creates problems while adjusting the arrangement of plumbing and other toilet lines. Sometimes even slabs are to be perforated both as an afterthought or the part of planning which can become a potential source of leakage if not handled with aproper understanding of materials.
In above-cited cases each waterproofing problem becomes a unique case study and needs to be addressed separately. Obviously a thorough study and absolute expertise in the field only can give a proper solution. Most of the time an additional safety measure in the course of waterproofing can help a long way to offer the relief. Looking at the very high cost per square foot of construction today and still higher costs for rectification (in case anything goes wrong) it is very wise to take a safety measure that can ensure total waterproofing.
From an economic point of view also when spread over tentire cost of project per square foot which is say for example approx. Rs.1000/- per sq.ft, then the cost of this additional safety does not come to even 2 percent. If you add the cost of interiors to the basic cost of the structures then possibly this additional cost will be further lowered down to 1 or 1.25 percent. Further, as the number of floors increase, as is the generalized case these days, the cost per square foot is brought down to aalmost negligible percentage.
WATERPROOFING OF STRUCTURES: CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS
Al Yaqoub Tower is a tall building in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The tower reached its peak in 2010 and was completed in 2013.
Problem: To avoid seepage from wet areas and make structures durable.
Application: Waterproofing by crystallization.
Conclusion: We have suggested waterproofing by crystallization. It is an economical waterproofing system in the form of dry powder. When applied it becomes an integral part of concrete, so cannot puncture or tear. The system is durable and lasts as long as the concrete.
Location: Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, UAE
Client : Al Yaquob Group
Material consultant - Sunanda Speciality Coatings Pvt Ltd.
Email - info@sunandaglobal.com
Website - www.sunandaglobal.com
