Biologically Inspiried Load Adapted 3D Textile Reinforcement Structures

Abstract

A significant strategy to reduce the demand for natural resources and the associated environmental impact is enhanced material efficiency in the design process for new building structures. Innovative concepts for designing, modelling, constructing, producing and utilising sustainable resource-efficient concrete-based building components will be the foundation for future-oriented constructions. For this reason, the ability to process biologically inspired 3D textile reinforcement structures is crucial to fully exploit the potential of carbon concrete. This research project provides a fundamentally realigned, CAE-supported approach so that optimization algorithms, numerical models for the generation of robot placement paths and bionically induced yarn positioning can be taken into account. The evolved intelligent and modular yarn placement system forms the basis to overcome current challenges involved in the placing and stabilizing of spatial and highly branched reinforcement topologies during the manufacturing process. Hence, the novel tool-independent, geometrically highly variable, robot-supported fibre placement technology is supposed to be capable of manufacturing biologically inspired load adapted 3D textile topologies with reinforcement in z-direction.

Current and Future Trends in Textiles for Concrete Construction Applications

“…The combination of new materials and novel manufacturing processes can be the key to new environmental designs and resource-saving types of construction [74,76,77]. The potential of textile-reinforced concrete is demonstrated by its ability to produce geometrically demanding, branched, and complex topologies [74].…”

“…Additional process steps (e.g., cutting and stacking) are necessary to obtain the final near-net-shape geometry. New technological and conceptual approaches, for example, using industrial robots, adaptive molds, additive manufacturing processes, or tailored fiber placement technology, are powerful tools to implement new, material-minimized design principles in the construction industry in order to produce textile reinforcement structures free of cuts for concrete applications (e.g., TRC components) [76,78].…”

“…They are also being used to produce large-scale shell elements with membranous outer appearance exclusively using both preimpregnated and freshly impregnated rovings [83,84]. The ability to produce planar and grid-like two-dimensional textile reinforcements, as well as complex hierarchical and internally branched three-dimensional textile reinforcement structures, is the main advantage of the presented robotic manufacturing technologies [76,85,88]. Thus, one-dimensional structures as reinforcement bars (rebars), simple twodimensional structures as grid-like reinforcement mats, and even more sophisticated threedimensional textile reinforcement structures with spatial branchings and load-adapted fiber orientations such as reinforcement cages or bionic reinforcement topologies for pillars can be provided by these robot-based manufacturing technologies [14].…”

“…Figure 11. Developed robot-assisted manufacturing technology (principleE) with functional modules working hand in hand in order to produce complex, bionic 3D textile reinforcement structures[76].…”

Development of a highly various warp yarn manipulation system for the fabrication of 2D net-shape non-crimp-fabrics for highly material efficient concrete reinforcements

“…For use in composites the water-soluble base fabric is removed and the remaining reinforcement structure consolidated using epoxy resin or thermoplastic matrices. 17 Robot supported yarn placement can be used for planar and three dimensional reinforcement structure by placing impregnated yarns on a support structure 8,18 (Figure 2(b)).

Figure 2.Basic principle of TFP process 17 (a) and robot-supported yarn placement 8 (b).

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