• Buswell, R. A.
• Austin, S. A.
• Lim, Sungwoo
• Thorpe, A.
• Le, T. T.
• Gibb, A. G. F.

Abstract

This paper presents the experimental results concerning the mix design and fresh properties of a high-performance fibre-reinforced fine-aggregate concrete for printing concrete. This concrete has been designed to be extruded through a nozzle to build layer-by-layer structural components. The printing process is a novel digitally controlled additive manufacturing method which can build architectural and structural components without formwork, unlike conventional concrete construction methods. The most critical fresh properties are shown to be extrud- ability and buildability, which have mutual relation- ships with workability and open time. These properties are significantly influenced by the mix proportions and the presence of superplasticiser, retarder, accelerator and polypropylene fibres. An optimum mix is identi- fied and validated by the full-scale manufacture of a bench component.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• additive manufacturing