Material Design and Performance Evaluation of Foam Concrete for Digital Fabrication

Abstract

3D-printing with foam concrete, which is known for its distinct physical and mechanical properties, has not yet been purposefully investigated. The article at hand presents a methodological approach for the mixture design of 3D-printable foam concretes and a systematic investigation of the potential application of this type of material in digital construction. Three different foam concrete compositions with water-to-binder ratios between 0.33 and 0.36 and having densities of 1100 to 1580 kg/m³ in the fresh state were produced with a pre-foaming technique using a protein-based foaming agent. Based on the fresh-state tests, including 3D-printing as such, an optimum composition was identified and its compressive and flexural strengths were characterised. The printable foam concrete showed compressive strength above 10 MPa and low thermal conductivity, which make it suitable for 3D-printing applications, while fulfilling both load-carrying and insulating functions.

An overview of recent advancements in fibre-reinforced 3D printing concrete

“…It is essential to develop fibre-reinforced cement-based materials to expand the use of 3D-printed concrete for highperformance structures (Melenka et al, 2016;Al Abadi et al, 2018;Kabir et al, 2020). In the literature, printable concretes have been characterized by diverse combinations of properties, encompassing normal strength concrete, geo-polymer concrete, foam concrete, and highly efficient fibre-reinforced concrete (Le et al, 2012a;Perrot et al, 2018;Sanjayan et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2018;Bong et al, 2019;Markin et al, 2019). Several investigators have incorporated fibres into concrete to resolve the difficulty of utilizing traditional steel reinforcement with 3D printing.…”

Improvement of Performances of the Gypsum-Cement Fiber Reinforced Composite (GCFRC)

“… Classification of raw materials for the production of gypsum-cement binders (GCB) [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. …”