Following the demolition of the Supertech twin towers in Noida, a team of scientists from the CSIR lab Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) has started studying the impact of the vibration and conducting material, demolition and construction-related research collected by the high-tech gadgets they had deployed at the buildings for scientific purposes.
Around 20 hi-tech seismographs and 10 black boxes -- an electronic device to record sound in aircraft -- were among the equipment placed inside the twin towers while drones with thermal image cameras were deployed outside the structures to capture pictures and videos that would help in future research.
The CBRI was appointed by the Supreme Court as a technical expert for the demolition of Supertech's nearly 100-metre-tall illegal structures in Noida's Sector 93A.
It was the CBRI that selected Mumbai-based Edifice Engineering that safely brought down the structures by 'waterfall implosion' that caused no structural damage to nearby buildings as close as nine metres.
The CBRI had roped in the Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CIMFR) for ground vibrations. Its teams from Dhanbad in Jharkhand and Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh were present during the demolition. "We had 19 seismographs. These are high-end and highly technical seismographs which were installed in a 150-metre range from the twin towers.
Some equipment were placed in the basements of the twin towers while others were placed on different floors so that we could get the magnitude of the vibration of the two buildings," a senior scientist from CBRI said. "All the information gathered from these equipment and instruments will help us in future for material studies, demolition and construction-related research.
We also used instruments like geophones to record and study the movement of vibrations within buildings and also give an idea about the load a building could during such activities besides devices to study soil conditions," the scientist said.
The thermal imaging cameras form images using infrared radiations and are largely used in fires and other disaster management activities to detect people engulfed in thick smoke and dust. “Several high-technology equipment and instruments were placed inside the twin towers and their findings will be very useful for future studies. There has been no structural damage in the nearby residential towers of ATS Village and Emerald Court societies.
Besides a compound wall of ATS Village, some window panes have broken. We had asked for a post-demolition structural audit which is to be done by Supertech. Once that is done, its findings will help us analyse the demolition," said the scientist.
