Page 64 - AWSAR 2.0

40 || AWSAR Awarded Popular Science Stories - 2019
Corrosion-Free Structures – Is It a Dream or Reality?
Dr Sripriya Rengaraju*
Email: raju.sripriya@gmail.com
It was a rainy day. Varun, my 6-year-old son, was watching the people living on the street side through my bay window. He questioned,
‘Amma, why these people are getting drenched in the rain?’ pointing to those people across the road. I told him the sad reality by saying, ‘They are staying here because they are not able to afford a proper home.’ He continued wondering, ‘Why don’t they have a house like the one we have?’ With an obvious expression, I replied: ‘To make a proper home, you need money.’ After I answered him, my Ph.D. mind began thinking about the initiatives for mass housing and affordable homes. A lot of new materials are coming into the market and have increased the pace of construction. They hold promising potential for accomplishing housing for all. So, we all will get proper shelter very
soon. Suddenly, I came back to reality as Varun shook my hand and recalled his lessons with excitement, ‘Amma, kutcha house and pucca house.’ I said, ‘Yes, dear. These are different types of houses. The evolution of construction materials from natural (stone, timber, etc.) to man-made (bricks, concrete) happened as we migrated from forests. Proper shelter brings a change in the socioeconomic status of the people and the usage of the surrounding environment.’
* Dr Sripriya Rengaraju, Post Doctoral Fellow from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, is pursuing her research on “Corrosion Testing Methods and Service Life Estimation of Highly Resistive Concrete Systems”. Her popular science story entitled “Corrosion-Free Structures – Is It a Dream or Reality?” has been selected for AWSAR Award.