Modeling 3D Concrete Printing Through the Combined DEM-Discrete Fresh Concrete Approach (2026-01)¶

Three-dimensional concrete printing (3DCP) has emerged as a promising manufacturing technique in the civil engineering sector, offering significant advantages over traditional construction methods. Despite its potential, challenges persist in optimizing the deposition process, particularly regarding the rheological characteristics of printable concrete, which affect filament formation and stability during printing. In this study, we implement the discrete fresh concrete (DFC) model within an in-house formulation of the discrete element method (DEM) to simulate the rheological behavior of fresh concrete during extrusion. While using our implementation to analyze how printing speed and concrete mixture affect the quality of single-layer printing, we identify limitations in the original DFC model to properly represent particle-particle and particle-surface tangential interactions, particularly in energy dissipation mechanisms. To improve the model’s robustness, we suggest modifications to account for static friction and rolling resistance in the material model. Once these limitations are overcome, our simulation results indicate that the enhanced DFC framework can provide valuable insights into the printing process, including filament formation and layer continuity and stability, and may be a useful tool for process optimization in 3DCP applications.