Empower Wall: Active insulation system leveraging additive manufacturing and model predictive control

Flexible and Lightweight Solutions for Energy Improvement in Construction: A Literature Review

“…On this topic, all 13 selected studies [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50] investigated the use of concrete 3D-printing technologies in constructing whole buildings. All the details of the collected research articles included in this section are reported in Table A2.…”

“…On this topic, all 13 selected studies [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50] investigated the use of concrete 3Dprinting technologies in constructing whole buildings.…”

“…In [42], the authors estimated that a properly designed all-electric 3D-printed residential building could achieve a potential 26% reduction in energy demand and CO2 emissions. Indeed, the remaining eight studies selected in this topic addressed the problem of improving the concrete 3D-printed envelope by modifying the concrete mixture [43][44][45] or the printed structure by integrating an insulation material [46][47][48] or additional systems [49,50].…”

“…Finally, the opportunity of integrating complex active systems is investigated in both [49] and [50].…”

“…Atkins et al [49] reported the development and testing of an active insulation system that combined additive manufacturing and model predictive control to create a more sustainable building envelope; the system was based on the concept of combining thermal energy storage and active insulation systems by including a two-pipe circuit connected to the HVAC and active insulation systems in the 3D-printed assembly to minimize energy consumption during peak demand hours. The results showed that the wall effectively charged and discharged; only a tiny amount of energy was last while idle; and this inconvenience could be further improved by integrating passive insulation or optimizing the geometrical parameters of the assembly in relation to the placement in the envelope.…”