Aligned Interlayer Fibre Reinforcement and Post-tensioning as a Reinforcement Strategy for Digital Fabrication
Abstract
Digital Fabrication with Concrete (DFC) brings many new possibilities for the design and production of concrete structures, promising to revolutionise the concrete construction industry. While technological and material challenges have already been overcome to a large extent, there is still a lack of sufficiently mature reinforcement solutions. Therefore, most digital technologies encounter difficulties in producing load-bearing concrete members. Fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) is one of the most promising reinforcing strategies for DFC due to its capability for producing complex geometries. In conventional FRC, the fibres are dispersed randomly in the concrete matrix; for DFC applications this (i) forces to re-engineer the concrete processing (pumpability and rheology), and (ii) requires using very short and expensive fibres due to pumpability constraints. This paper presents a new reinforcement strategy for using FRC in layered DFC technologies that overcomes the stated limitations of conventional FRC. It consists in adding fibres right after the deposition of each layer of concrete in a controlled amount and orientation and providing a post-tensioning reinforcement in the perpendicular direction. The mechanical behaviour, as well as the potential and first implementation steps in the Concrete Extrusion 3D Printing and Eggshell technologies under development at ETH Zurich, are discussed. The mechanical results show a significant increase in tensile resistance of the aligned interlayer fibre reinforcement compared to conventional FRC. However, for large-scale applications, the main loads still need to be carried by post-tensioning reinforcement. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000445978Publication status
publishedExternal links
Book title
Second RILEM International Conference on Concrete and Digital Fabrication. DC 2020Journal / series
RILEM BookseriesVolume
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
SpringerEvent
Subject
Digital fabrication with concrete; Concrete structures; Fibre reinforced concrete; Fibre alignmentOrganisational unit
09469 - Kaufmann, Walter / Kaufmann, Walter
02284 - NFS Digitale Fabrikation / NCCR Digital Fabrication
03709 - Kohler, Matthias / Kohler, Matthias
09566 - Dillenburger, Benjamin / Dillenburger, Benjamin
03708 - Gramazio, Fabio / Gramazio, Fabio
03891 - Flatt, Robert J. / Flatt, Robert J.
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