Printed Concrete as Formwork-Material (2020-07)¶

Production of complex formwork with conventional materials can be expensive due to the intensive labor during the manufacturing process. The introduction of printed concrete as formwork material could resolve this problem. The combination of the automated robotic manufacturing and the high degree of freedom could benefit the production process. However, the material characteristics of printed concrete are less suitable then for conventional materials. The low tensile strength of printed concrete formwork could endanger the stability of the formwork during casting of the concrete. This experimental study identifies the most important stresses and parameters to be studied while casting concrete in a printed concrete formwork. The investigation was performed on a printed concrete cylindrical formwork filled with self-compacting concrete. During casting, the strain on the outside of the formwork was measured in time as well as in function of the changing pressure head. Results showed that the strain on the outside of the formwork increased in time, with increasing pressure head.