Development of the construction processes for reinforced additively constructed concrete

Abstract

In August 2018, a demonstration/experiment was performed in Champaign, Illinois USA, at the Engineer Research and Development Center Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (ERDC-CERL) looking at the continuous printing of a 512 ft2 (47.6 m2) reinforced additively constructed concrete (RACC) building. This building incorporated the capability of 3D-printing to produce unique free-form shapes, while utilizing traditional reinforcing methods. Previously, in July of 2017, a more traditional building was 3D printed using a discontinuous concrete printing approach. These demonstrations were performed to determine the feasibility of using additively constructed concrete (ACC) as a material for vertical structural elements. This study explores the differences and similarities of ACC with conventional concrete construction and concrete masonry unit construction. To validate the feasibility of ACC a cost comparison analysis was performed comparing the construction methods used in these demonstrations to conventional concrete masonry unit and cast-in-place concrete construction.