Additive manufacturing (3D printing) of fiber reinforced cement-based composites

Recently, digital manufacturing has been termed the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0). Implementation of digital manufacturing revolutionizes the construction industry with the potential of freeform architecture, less raw material consumption, reduced construction costs, and increased worker safety. Thus, for the last decade methods on digital manufacturing of mortar/concrete gained a significant interest compared to conventional concrete pumping.The proposed project aims to develop an automated system enabling additive manufacturing of cement-based composites. To achieve the goal of the project the studies will progress in 2 main phases. Throughout the first phase of the project, we will develop a new fiber reinforced cement based composite material compatible with additive manufacturing. The newly developed mortar will be specially designed with improved rheology and thixotropy enabling additive manufacturing through extrusion. In addition, the mortar design will include natural nano clay pozzolan and bacterial cells as viscosity modifying agents (VDK). Synthetic fiber reinforcement will be used to enhance the mechanical performance of the mortar and the interlayer bonding strength between the extruded layers will be improved by using a cement paste binder. The 2nd stage of the prosed works covers the design of a 3-D printer with 2 different extrusion heads which enabling successive manufacturing of 2 different manufacturing. In addition, this phase also includes generating a software compatible with digital manufacturing of cement-based composites.