Experimental Investigation of Key Structural Parameters for Structural Design of 3D Printed Concrete (2024-11)¶

The use of robots to produce 3D-printed concrete structures is developing rapidly. The technology offers promising potential to change the way we design and optimise concrete structures. This has already been shown by numerous publications in academia and showcased in the industry. When developing new design expressions for 3D-printed concrete structures or adopting well-known models for cast concrete structures from the literature, it is important to be able to test the basic material characteristics. First, when the models are developed in academia. Secondly, to be able to test the material characteristics of printed material onsite. The design models for cast concrete are typically based on the compressive strength of concrete and implicitly include the tensile strength. However, we do not have the same evidence for the relation between compressive and tensile strength for printed concrete. In addition, it is expected that the relation is not the same in all directions, because of the layered printing process. This paper proposes a testing methodology for testing the tensile strength of robotically printed concrete. Furthermore, the paper presents experimental and statistical evidence for the anisotropic compressive and tensile strength of printed concrete.