Automated Workflows for Concrete Additive Manufacturing for Design, Optimization, and Fabrication of Parametrized Elements (2024-11)¶

3D concrete printing is an innovative new construction technology offering the potential to enable the efficient production of individual structures with less consumption of resources. The technology will mainly shape the future construction philosophy. From the design of a structure to the printed component, many individual steps based on different software are required, which must be repeated for each new or even slightly changed design. The geometry of the structure is created in a CAD program. The print path is defined in slicer software leading to the machine code for the printer to print the structure. A numerical model of the printed structure makes optimization in design and fabrication possible, by predicting the behaviour of the structure and reducing the number of test prints and costs. For that, additional steps like meshing the design and running a simulation are required. In order to work efficiently, an automated workflow is necessary, which runs all of the individual steps without interacting with each software program. Furthermore, changes in parameters or the exchange of parts (different designs or printers) must be simple. One way to develop such an automated workflow is presented within this paper. The interfaces are defined in a way that allows running the full chain of tools as well as individual steps. The workflow is demonstrated based on the example of a parametrized wall element for extrusion-based concrete. Furthermore, a test series of cubes is printed, and the influence ofdifferent infill structures is numerically and experimentally compared.