Brief
Ibtisam Abbasi examines the pros and cons of incorporating a porous aggregate into the 3D printing of lightweight foam concrete. While foam concrete offers benefits such as improved insulation, being cost effective and able to be used in various applications, the yield stress is not always optimal, Abbasi writes.
Insight
Lightweight concrete (density less than 1000 kg/m3) is often achieved by incorporating a substantial amount of foamy substance into fresh concrete. The latest study in the journal Cement and Concrete Composites looks into combining lightweight particles with prepared foam in foamy concrete to achieve a density of less than 1000 kg/m3 for 3D printing.
Advantages of 3D Concrete Printing
3D concrete printing (3DCP) is a new technology altering the construction sector by combining construction automation and intelligent manufacturing.
Compared to traditional building methods, 3DCP offers considerable reductions in waste generation, labor costs, time, and construction-related disasters, as well as the structural flexibility to design aesthetically complicated structures.
Extrusion-Based 3D Concrete Modeling
Extrusion-based 3DCP can be utilized for building large-scale buildings. Its popularity is mostly owing to the inherent benefits of the extrusion approach, which include the ease of application in large-scale 3D printing, the accessibility of specialized manufacturing machines or gantry platforms, the speedy fabrication method, and so on.
3D printed buildings are produced using the extrusion process by extruding and positioning a thin layer of new concrete strands following the geometry of the extrusion head.
The most frequent method for manufacturing ultralight concrete buildings using 3DCP is to utilize a compact concrete mix. Extrusion-based or powder bed 3D printing processes are used with a lightweight concrete mix comprised of permeable particles.
Introduction to Foam Concrete
Foam concrete is a type of concrete mixture that is made by incorporating a significant number of air cavities into the new cementitious matrix. Air gaps can be generated using either manual foaming (pre-foaming technique) or chemically induced foaming.
The most frequent method for manufacturing ultralight concrete buildings using 3DCP is to utilize a compact concrete mix. Extrusion-based or powder bed 3D printing processes are used with a lightweight concrete mix comprised of permeable particles.
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