Title:
Interlayer Reinforcement for Digitally Fabricated Concrete Structures
Author(s):
Jaime Mata-Falcon
Publication:
Web Session
Volume:
Issue:
Appears on pages(s):
Keywords:
DOI:
Date:
3/28/2021
Abstract:
Digital Fabrication with Concrete (DFC) brings many new possibilities for the design and production of concrete structures, promising to revolutionize the concrete construction industry. While technological and material challenges have already been overcome to a large extent, most digital concrete technologies do not allow adding reinforcement during production. This complicates the compliance with structural integrity requirements. In this work, we present the opportunities offered by the interlayer reinforcement approach to tackle this challenge. This reinforcement strategy is compatible with most DFC processes. It consists of adding transverse reinforcement during the printing process (aligned in the printing direction), and post-installing longitudinal continuous reinforcement in printed voids (perpendicular to the printed layers). The suitability of using different materials as transverse reinforcement is critically analyzed based on the results of large-scale four-point bending tests with detailed measurement of crack kinematics. While high strength cables were observed to be very efficient at failure as shear reinforcement, the addition of aligned fiber reinforcement between the layers of concrete provided a clearly superior crack control at service loads. The new possibilities offered by this reinforcement approach are a significant step towards code compliant DFC structures, which can profit from the existing opportunities within DFC for a leaner construction.