Experimental Study on the Thermal Performance of a 3D Printed Concrete Prototype Building (2021-03)¶

3D printed concrete (3DPC) has drawn continuous research attention due to its potential to boost the development of construction industry. In this paper, an on-site experiment has been conducted to investigate the thermal performance of a real 3D printed concrete building. Its potential defects are detected with the infrared thermography technique. Thermal properties of the main wall body of the tested house are calculated with on-site monitoring data. The results identify a highly non-uniform temperature distribution on the exterior wall surface of the 3DPC tested house, which is mainly caused by variations of printing path and cross-section design. Other 3D printing characteristics, such as number of layers per printing, rest time during printing process and lay-by-layer appearance, can also bring side-effect to the thermal performance of 3DPC and generate thermal defects. The calculated average values of thermal resistance (R-value), effective thermal conductivity and thermal transmittance (U-value) are respectively thermal insulating performance of the 3DPC envelops as well as the complexity to depict its heat transfer 0.31 m2K/W, 0.64 W/(mK) and 2.27 W/(m2K). The results demonstrate insufficient and unsatisfied process. Based on the research findings, further detailed studies of 3DPC in thermal aspect are strongly recommended.