CONPrint3D

Guided by Presented By
Dr. Manu S Nadesan Sudhina Sunandan
Associate Professor ASI17CE056
CE Dept. ASIET 2017-2021
Department of Civil Engineering ASIET
 CONTENT

• INTRODUCTION
• OBJECTIVE
• METHODOLOGY
a. CONPrint3D : Onsite 3-D concrete printing
b. Material aspects
c. About the components in printable concrete
d. Selected methods to characterize printable concrete in fresh state.
e. Compressive and flexural strengths of printable concrete.
f. Selected Results and Discussion.
g. Advantages and disadvantages .
• CONCLUSION
• REFERENCE

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 INTRODUCTION
• Three dimensional printing (3DP) is a manufacturing process that builds layers to

create a three- dimensional solid object from a digital model.

• It allows for mass customization and complex shapes

• 3D printing for civil structures can significantly reduce the construction time and

cost.
• It is challenging to develop suitable printing tools and materials.

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 OBJECTIVES
• The objectives of CONPrint3D include having a formwork-free shaping system

on-site, using existing machines whilst also being profitable.The technology is

designed to be capable of directly applying concrete to the building site

without additional formworks through an additive manufacturing, or layer-by-

layer system.

• One of the focal points of CONPrint3D is not only to develop a time, labour and

resource -efficient advanced construction process, but also to make the new

process economically viable while achieving broader acceptance from the

existing industry practitioners.

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 PROPOSED METHODOLOGY

 CONPrint3D : Onsite 3D concrete printing

A methodology of applying 3D printing in the field of onsite concrete

construction, named CONPrint3D is being investigated at the TU Dresden. The

primary objective of this project is the development of a formwork - free,

Monolithic construction process using 3D printing. One vital aspect of the project

strategy is adapting a concrete boom pump to deliver material to specific

positions autonomously and accurately using a custom -developed print head

attached to the bottom.

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 Fig. 1
Illustration of CONPrint3D approach depicting a portable concrete pump robotic arm
and print head assembly.

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 IMPORTANT MATERIAL ASPECTS
To meet the physical and process requirements, cementatious compositions for DC

should fulfill numerous material properties. some of the selected properties are

printed in the table below:-

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 Table. 1
Selected requirements of printable concrete in Fresh state and Hardened state

Requirements of printable concrete

In Fresh state In hardened state

Pumpability Compressor, flexural and tensile
strengths

Extrudability High layer-interface strength

Buildability Low/no ingress of external

fluids,especially at the interface

Steady state / Extended workability

Low / no shrinkage

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The holistic approach suggested and already tested at a laboratory scale at TU
Dresden, followed this procedure :-
1. Identify required material properties such as compressive strength based on
target application.
2. Selection of raw material and process parameters based on parametric
studies and literature considering the influence of constituents and process
parameters on all the material properties mentioned in step three.
3. Extensive experimental studies develop printable concrete using
investigations on:-
a. Pumpability
b. Extrudability
c. Buildability
d. Hydration kinetics
e. Compressive, tensile, and flexural strengths in various combination of loading direction

4. Optimization on develop compositions for specific target application.

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 About the components in printable concrete
• A printable concrete composition is made from the combination of a solid mix,
water, and various liquid admixtures.

• The solid mix includes quantities of aggregate, coarse sand, and fine sand in an
approximately 1:1:1 critical aggregate ratio, as well as a binding agent present
in a critical binding ratio.

• Solid admixtures include clay, fly ash, and silica fume. This solid mix may be
prepackaged for later combination with the water and liquid admixtures.

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• The solid mix combines with water at a critical water ratio ranging from
approximately 0.44 to approximately 0.50. Liquid admixtures include flow
control, plasticizer, and shrinkage-reducing admixtures.

• Once the printable concrete composition is prepared, a user may print a

structure without further modification of the composition. Users may embed
mesh between layers of the printable concrete composition to reinforce or
stabilize the structure.

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Material Compositions
Table. 2

Fig. 2
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 Graph 1 Graph 2

Compressive and flexural strengths of printed and casted specimens

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 Fig .3
Reinforcement in 3d printable concrete structure

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 Selected methods to characterize printable
concrete in fresh state.
I. Pumpability
• Pumpability is transporting the concrete to the print head which is
commonly achieved through pumping.
• The pumpability of concrete depends highly on its composition.
• The rheological properties of concrete are crucial to its flow
characteristics and to a great extent, the pumping pressure is
required.
• Among other techniques such as viscometer and tribometer, a
specialized testing device called sliding pipe rheometer has been
used to characterize pumpability.

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II. Extrudability
• Extrudability means ability of material to be extruded through nozzle of
3D printer with minimal energy needed at the printhead.
• Ram extruders are in principle application for characterizing extrudability
of printable concrete.
• Based on literature two extra method can be identified ie. The squeeze flow
method and penetration resistance method.

III. Buildability
• Buildability is the resistance to deformation of a printed layer to the shear
stress due to its own weight and that of subsequent layers depends highly in
the development of rheological properties of Fresh concrete one time

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 Fig. 5
Fig. 4 (A) Ram extruder
(B) Squeeze flow method
Sliding pipe rheometer

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 Compressive and flexural strengths of
printable concrete
• Aspects considered for selection of raw material include their influence on,
① Setting and hydration time.
② Strength at very early age of concrete
③ Pumpability and workability.
④ Strength of hardened concrete.
• In addition to these aspects the availability of raw material was also taken
into consideration.

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• Various composition including ordinary mortar, ordinary concrete and
fiber reinforced composite were developed.
• These compositions were characterized by long retention of
consistency, high thixotropy and controlled rapid setting on addition of
accelerator inside the print head.

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 Prism specimen of length 160 Mm and square cross-section with a side
dimension of 35mm were used for compressive and flexural test on printable
concrete.

 These specimens were saw-cut from a printed straight wall of length 1000mm,
height 300mm and breadth 38mm.

 All the layers were printed with print velocity of 75mm/s and 30 sec time gap
between printed layers.

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 Various tests
– Workability retainment were tested using Hagerman flow table test.

– Initial and final setting time - vicat needle test

– Rheological parameters of Fresh concrete –Haake -Mars II Rheometer.

– Extrudability and buildability - New experimental method, 3DPTD.

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 Fig .6 Fig. 7

a) comprehensive strength b) flexural strength

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 Selected results and discussion

Mechanical properties of printed and casted specimens :

Table .2
Compressive and flexural strength of printed and casted specimens

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• The mechanical properties were tested at mortar ages of 3 & 21 days. To
investigate the bond quality between printed layers experiments were
conducted by applying force in both perpendicular and parallel direction to the
layer-interface plans.

• In addition, conventionally casted prism specimen were tested at the age of 21

days to record any process induced variations in material properties.

• These casted specimens were produced in parallel to the printing process from
the same batch of printable fine graded concrete.

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 Advantages

1. Reduced Injury
2. Reduced Material Costs Concrete Pour – Pile of Concrete
Waste
3. Quicker Construction
4. New Markets
5. Cheaper Construction
6. Better Durability
7. Eco-friendly
8. Affordable

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 Disadvantages

1. Reduced employee number

2. Transportation of printers on job site becomes risky.
3. Correction is not possible.

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World's first 3D printed castle

Fig. 8

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 CONCLUSION
Important properties of printable concrete in fresh and hardened state were
identified. Experimental methods for studying properties of printable concrete
including pumpability, extrudability, and buildability are provided. Selected results
of compressive and flexural strengths for printed and casted specimens were
comparatively analyzed.The presented fine-grained printable concrete
composition with its high mechanical strengths and consistent printability up to
90 minutes after water addition is a promising material for large-scale
implementation.Systematic studies on quantification of extrudability and
buildability of printable concretes are necessary to ensure wide-ranging
implementation of digital construction in construction practice.

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 REFERENCES
1. Chapter 16 - Studying the Printability of Fresh Concrete for Formwork-Free Concrete
Onsite 3D Printing Technology (CONPrint3D)Author panel -Venkatesh NaiduNerella,
ViktorMechtcherine(2019).
2. Inline quantification of extrudability of cementitious materials for digital
construction .Author panel -
V.N.Nerellaa ,M.Nä therb ,A.Iqbala ,M.Butlera ,V.Mechtcherinea(2018).
3. Chapter 12 - Interlayer Strength of 3D Printed Concrete: Influencing Factors and Method
of Enhancing.Author panel -TaylorMarchment ,Jay G.Sanjayan ,Behzad Nematollahi ,Ming
Xia(2019).
4. Rheological requirements for printable concretes. Author -NicolasRoussel(2018).
5. Yield stress criteria to assess the buildability of 3D concrete printing.Author panel -
R.Jayathilakage ,P.Rajeev ,J.G.Sanjayan(2020).
6. 3D-printed steel reinforcement for digital concrete construction – Manufacture,
mechanical properties and bond behaviour .Author panel
ViktorMechtcherinea ,JasminGrafea ,Venkatesh
N.Nerellaa ,ErikSpaniol ,MartinHertelb ,UweFü ssel.(2018).
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Thank you

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