Additive manufacturing of concrete in construction: potentials and challenges of 3D concrete printing

By Fred Bos, R. Wolfs, Z. Ahmed, Tam Theo Salet. 2016

1,037 citations recorded by the source corpus.

ABSTRACT Additive manufacturing is gaining ground in the construction industry. The potential to improve on current construction methods is significant. One of such methods being explored currently, both in academia and in construction practice, is the additive manufacturing of concrete (AMoC). Albeit a steadily growing number of researchers and private enterprises active in this field, AMoC is still in its infancy. Different variants in this family of manufacturing methods are being developed and improved continuously. Fundamental scientific understanding of the relations between design, material, process, and product is being explored. The collective body of work in that area is still very limited. After sketching the potential of AMoC for construction, this paper introduces the variants of AMoC under development around the globe and goes on to describe one of these in detail, the 3D Concrete Printing (3DCP) facility of the Eindhoven University of Technology. It is compared to other AMoC methods as well as to 3D printing in general. Subsequently, the paper will address the characteristics of 3DCP product geometry and structure, and discuss issues on parameter relations and experimental research. Finally, it will present the primary obstacles that stand between the potential of 3DCP and large-scale application in practice, and discuss the expected evolution of AMoC in general.

Subfields: Automotive Engineering, Building and Construction, Mechanical Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a85e56f10cdfffc7a02a86294d43e031e641951d

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Automotive Engineering

1. M. Tan
2. Biranchi Narayan Panda
3. V. Mechtcherine
4. Fred Bos
5. G. V. van Zijl
6. S. Paul
7. Y. Tay
8. S. Figueiredo

In Building and Construction

1. M. Tan
2. Biranchi Narayan Panda
3. V. Mechtcherine
4. Fred Bos
5. G. V. van Zijl
6. Jinlong Pan
7. Kequan Yu
8. S. Paul

In Mechanical Engineering

1. Y. Tay
2. Ian Gibson
3. Ernst Rank
4. S. Figueiredo
5. Venkatesh Nerella
6. Fred Bos
7. S. Paul
8. Biranchi Narayan Panda

Citations in the corpus

• 3D printing trends in building and construction industry: a review (2017, neutral): “Process parameter such as the change of print speed, different layer thickness and flow rate due to the materials thixotropy properties plays an important role for concrete printing (Bos et al. 2016).”