6.10 The direct/indirect use of additive manufacturing in construction viscous mixtures

REFERENCE SPOKE
OTHER SPOKES
PROJECT LEADER
Nicola Parisi
START DATE
Gennaio 2023
END DATE
Dicembre 2025
PROPOSER
Politecnico di Bari
PARTNERS

Politecnico di Torino, Sapienza Università di Roma, Università degli studi di Napoli Federico II,    

6.10 The direct/indirect use of additive manufacturing in construction viscous mixtures

The project proposes a study on the construction potential in civil engineering and architecture by combining additive manufacturing technology and viscous materials. The research will be carried out on both the direct extrusion of viscous doughs using large-scale printing equipment and the indirect use of additive manufacturing, as Fused Deposition Modeling, to produce casting moulds for viscous doughs. Its primary aim is to demonstrate how digital fabrication, and especially additive manufacturing, can be used to create innovative building elements and systems with a dual purpose:

  • developing a building systems for a circular economy in construction through the re-use of natural and waste materials with a zero-kilometer provenance;
  • proposing a system of building shapes that cannot be realized with traditional fabrication technologies using viscous dough.

The research will be developed simultaneously in four different areas:

  • The optimization of mixtures made of natural and waste materials by introducing chemical components and physical-mechanical actions to improve the fresh-state properties required by additive manufacturing, the hardened-state technical performance and quality of both material and fabricated elements;
  • The development of tailored additive manufacturing systems through the integrated use of differentiated handling systems and differentiated extrusion systems;
  • The development of an innovative process of architectural composition that integrates computational and generative design with digital fabrication techniques in the viscous additive manufacturing field;
  • The development of a structural design approach which integrates the main features of the digitally manufactured elements (e.g., layered structure, free-form shapes etc.) along with a proper finite element simulation strategy to be used for the acceptance/compliance of the new products;
  • The design and realization of a demo-prototype by using large scale printing available at UniNa which reflects the overall design-to-fabrication strategy of the project;
  • The implementation of life cycle assessment (LCA) models to evaluate the eco-sustainability potential of the materials and manufacturing processes developed in the project.

The research activities will be finalized through the implementation of two experimental pilot sites. These will be developed to address the following challenges:

  • Conceptualise, design and test the construction of a complex spatial element using a viscous material which recycles waste and is optimized for high performance in direct additive manufacturing technology; the process should use as few construction support systems as possible such as (support and scaffolding/ support and framework) ribs and scaffolding to demonstrate the direct applicability of the construction system;
  • Thinking, designing, and testing the construction of a complex spatial system managed by computer aided design using open source computational and generative design software and 3 then its construction by indirect use of casting moulds; this process should also involve as few construction support systems as possible, such as support and scaffolding, to demonstrate the direct applicability of the construction system.
  • Tailoring the composition of the printable mixtures and the characteristics of the additive processes to reach an “optimum” combining technological performance and environmental/energy impact.
  • Demonstrate the structural feasibility of the concepts and the viability of viscous mixtures used in the direct/indirect additive manufacturing.
RISULTATI ATTESI

Drafting of a technical review on the use of viscous materials in additive manufacturing; investigating the most current state of the art both on the “material” and “manufacturing process” sides; addressing the most critical challenges related to the structural use of digital manufactured elements. The sectors involved are civil engineering and architecture.

Definition of optimized mixtures of natural and waste materials with the implementation of chemical components and physical-mechanical actions that improve the specific required fresh-state properties and hardened-state technical performance and quality of both material and manufactured elements.

Definition of technical production systems in additive manufacturing through the integrated use of differentiated handling systems and differentiated extrusion systems

Definition of innovative architectural composition processes that integrate computational and generative design with digital fabrication techniques in viscous additive manufacturing.

Study by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach (SimaPro software) the environmental impact (in terms of carbon footprint and energy demand) of both the developed mixtures and the implemented additive manufacturing process. This phase will aim to enhance the “green” aspect of the project regarding the integration of waste materials in the production of printable mixtures as well as to provide a useful tool for optimizing the additive manufacturing process in terms of energy consumption and material usage.

Proposal of a technical procedure enabling the design of structural building components by adopting the materials and technologies developed in the project.

Based on the developed mixtures/processes, proposal of an indicator for comparing materials that have differing constituents, processing requirements, environmental impacts, and technological properties with the aim of achieving an optimization in terms of performance and environmental impact.

Implementation of the pilot site for direct extrusion of viscous mixtures.

Implementation of the pilot site for the indirect use of additive manufacturing in viscous construction.