Numerical Model Describing the Early Age Behavior of 3D Printed Concrete – Work in Progress

Abstract

A numerical model used to predict the behavior of 3D printed concrete in the early age phase up until the point of collapse is presented. An incremental creep model for the material including aging and temperature effects is suggested. Furthermore, kinematic nonlinear effects are included in order to predict instability. The input parameters to the numerical model are determined through an optimization process where the displacement error between a finite element method (FEM) model and digital image correlation (DIC) measurements from an actual 3D print are minimized. A simplified (current state) version of the suggested numerical model was used to predict at how many layers a specific 3D print collapsed, with an error of 58%. This was concluded to be expected, since the numerical model is not fully implemented yet.