Eco-Friendly, Set-on-Demand Digital Concrete

Boscaro, Federica; Quadranti, Elia; Wangler, Timothy; Mantellato, Sara; Reiter, Lex; Flatt, Robert J.

doi:10.1089/3dp.2020.0350

Cited by 21 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Indeed, while only two values were measured after 2 days, these are very similar. This independence of the long-term strength from the accelerator dosage is consistent with 3D extrusion printing results obtained with the same accelerator paste [ 5 ].…”

Section: Materials Development and Prototypingsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…Faster gains may be obtained by other changes to the mix design, particularly if the type of cement can be changed to reduce the carbon footprint. Indeed, the type of accelerator presented performs very well with low-carbon cements, without compromising final strength [ 5 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such systems may be referred to as setting on demand [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ] and have recently received a lot of interest in the context of digital fabrication. Such systems involve preparing concrete with a retarder, to extend its open time, and adding an accelerator just before use.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Additive Digital Casting: From Lab to Industry

Lloret-Fritschi

Quadranti²,

Scotto³

et al. 2022

Materials

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Concrete construction harms our environment, making it urgent to develop new methods for building with less materials. Structurally efficient shapes are, however, often expensive to produce, because they require non-standard formworks, thus, standard structures, which use more material than is often needed, remain cheaper. Digital fabrication has the potential to change this paradigm. One method is Digital Casting Systems (DCS), where the hydration of self-compacting concrete is controlled on the fly during production, shortening the required setting time and reducing hydrostatic pressure on the formwork to a minimum. This enables a productivity increase for standard concrete production. More importantly, though, it enables a rethinking of formworks, as the process requires only cheap thin formworks, thus, unlocking the possibility to produce optimised structural members with less bulk material and lower environmental cost. While DCS has already proven effective in building structural members, this process faces the challenge of moving into industry. This paper covers the next steps in doing so. First, we present the benchmark and expectations set by the industry. Second, we consider how we comply with these requirements and convert our fast-setting self-compacting mortar mix into a coarser one. Third, we present the next generation of our digital processing system, which moves closer to the industrial requirements in terms of size and the control system. Finally, two prototypes demonstrate how DSC: (a) increases standard bulk production by 50% and (b) can be cast into ultra-thin formworks. We discuss the results and the short-term industrial concerns for efficiency and robustness, which must be addressed for such a system to be fully implemented in industry.

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Section: Materials Development and Prototypingsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Additive Digital Casting: From Lab to Industry

Lloret-Fritschi

Quadranti²,

Scotto³

et al. 2022

Materials

Self Cite

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“…• To avoid having to stiffen the formwork, set-on-demand casting could potentially be used as it would reduce pressure on the formwork. To apply set-on-demand casting, three main challenges would need to be addressed: (1) scaling up the set-on-demand process to output higher volume and coarser aggregates [44], (2) improving sustainability of the set-on-demand concrete by reducing cement content [45], and (3) investigating the possibilities of using set-ondemand casting for horizontal structures (such as the floor slab ribs), instead of vertical structures (such as the columns that have been fabricated until now [20,46]). • The research presented in this paper aims to realize materialoptimised concrete floor slabs, which results in floor slabs with less mass.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and fabrication of optimised ribbed concrete floor slabs using large scale 3D printed formwork

Burger

Huber

Lloret-Fritschi

et al. 2022

Automation in Construction

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“…Thus, the environmental footprint of 3D printed concrete is most often substantially higher than that of normal concrete, which typically uses 350-400 kg/m 3 of Portland cement). Development of blended cements in digital concrete processes are promising though-for example, recent studies have reduced the cement content to 305 kg/m 3 [23], roughly half the content generally used in 3DCP processes. However, even if such advances in the mix designs are achieved, 3DCP elements still not match the standard norms required for structural concrete, reducing the printed elements to lost formwork and makes them too expensive for most construction.…”

Section: Digital Fabrication With Concretementioning

confidence: 99%

In-Crease: Less Concrete More Paper

Lloret-Fritschi¹,

Choma²,

Scotto³

et al. 2023

RILEM Tech Lett

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Concrete is one of the most used materials after water. Largely owing to this, its environmental impact is substantial, although its embodied carbon per unit volume or mass is low when compared to most alternatives. This, along with the broad availability, good strength, durability and versatility of concrete means that it will remain a material of choice, although more efficient ways of using it must be found. Structurally optimized building components are a means to do this as they can save about 50% material. Unfortunately, however, such elements are presently too expensive to produce owing to them requiring non-standard formwork. It is an objective of digital fabrication to propose solutions to this issue. In this con-text, Digital Casting Systems (DCS) have advanced material control strategies for setting-on-demand in digital concrete processing. Thereby, the formwork pressure is reduced to a minimum, which opens possibilities of rethinking formworks as systems that are dynamically shaping, millimetre thin or weakly supporting the material cast inside. In this paper we present a brief overview of millimetre thin formworks and summarize the first realization of concrete elements that utilizes the mechanics of paper folding to make millimetre thin formworks up to 2.5 meters high. Such formworks could initially be flat packed, erected into shape, and eventually peeled-off and recycled in established material streams. This would reduce waste and transport cost, while offering a surface finish that meets the expectations for exposed concrete surfaces.

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Eco-Friendly, Set-on-Demand Digital Concrete

Cited by 21 publications

References 34 publications

Additive Digital Casting: From Lab to Industry

Additive Digital Casting: From Lab to Industry

Design and fabrication of optimised ribbed concrete floor slabs using large scale 3D printed formwork

In-Crease: Less Concrete More Paper

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