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Automated Toolpath Design of 3D Concrete Printing Structural Components

Project Date

2022-2025

Links

Ovenbird

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) Grant of the U.S. Department of Energy (DE-AR0001631), the National Science Foundation Future Eco Manufacturing Research Grant (NSF FMRG-CMMI 2037097), and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (NSF CAREER-CMMI 1944691) awarded to Dr. Masoud Akbarzadeh. Special thanks to Dr. Maximilian E. Ororbia, Pouria Vakhshouri, and Yi (Simone) Yang for their assistance in experiments.

Description

3D concrete printing (3DCP) structural components for construction assemblies are known for reduced material use and enhanced efficiency and design freedom. This article investigates the limitations in the geometrical and toolpath design of 3DCP structural components and presents an automated and comprehensive approach to their toolpath design and optimization. It exploits hierarchical geometric data structures and graph algorithms to achieve the following features:

  • By analyzing the overhang of toolpaths, the method offers quantitative criteria for determining the buildability of the components and predicting failure, thus assisting design decisions.
  • It provides toolpath offsetting and filleting methods that can enhance the dimensional accuracy of the print concerning layer line textures and overfills.
  • For branching and porous geometries, the method creates as-continuous-as-possible toolpaths with minimal stop-starts based on their topologies, thus reducing seam defects.
  • It converts the toolpath into efficient visualization meshes representing layer line textures and toolpath meshes compatible with finite elements analysis.

The proposed method is implemented as a plug-in software within the environment of Grasshopper® for Rhino®.

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