Study Explores 3D Printing Reinforcement Possibilities > ENGINEERING.com

Study Explores 3D Printing Reinforcement Possibilities
Emily Pollock posted on August 17, 2018 |

One of the researchers’ diagrams, showing how they 3D printed using concrete with reinforcing fibers already in it. On the top left is a photo of the 3D printer nozzle that was used to print the concrete. (Image courtesy of Nerella, Ogura and Mechtcherine, 2018.)

There’s been a lot of hype over 3D-printed concrete buildings, but we tend to forget that these buildings need to be reinforced. A recent report from the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures’ (IASS) 2018 Symposium has concluded that, while there’s no “perfect” reinforcement for this technology yet, there are several options that show promise.

Concrete is good at handling compression forces, but not particularly good at handling tension, so it needs to be reinforced with something strong against tension. Traditionally, that has meant metal rebar and/or plastic or metal fibers (fiber-reinforced concrete). In this report, a team from Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden) and the Shimizu Corporation’s Institute of Technology discussed and tested some ways to translate those methods into the realm of 3D-printed concrete.

“Significant progress has been made in non-reinforced concrete printing in the recent years with research and industrial organizations producing geometrically complex structures as well as innovative rapid mass-customized buildings,” the…

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