Design & production optimisation of a novel low embodied carbon concrete structural beam solution

该项目是由一家建筑行业的初创公司（Net Zero Projects -“NZP”）提出的，该公司对更可持续的结构工程产品（如混凝土梁、板和框架）有着远见。目前，建筑行业生产混凝土梁的方法偏向于简化制造工艺。实际上，矩形模板（细长的盒子）是按照所需的尺寸生产的，然后将混凝土倒入模板中以固定。然而，这是非常浪费的，混凝土梁的体积的一个好比例为梁提供有限的强度，因此与混凝土和生产过程相关的碳足迹的很大一部分被浪费地排放。NZP有一个“优化”混凝土梁的激进解决方案，结合3D混凝土打印，智能结构设计和钢索，大幅减少混凝土的用量，钢筋和嵌入式碳需要生产混凝土梁。迄今为止，NZP已经开发并生产了一种3D打印混凝土梁，与类似的传统混凝土梁相比，该混凝土梁的隐含碳减少了70%，材料成本降低了50%。NZP已经引起了建筑行业客户的商业兴趣。然而，目前NZP只能生产适合在两端支撑的梁。为了在商业上可行，该公司需要生产悬臂梁（即仅在一侧支撑的梁）。这是可能的，但前提是开发一些专业的自动化设计软件和悬臂梁设计的实验测试。所附的快速启动创新应用程序将使NZP能够解决这些挑战，并利用低碳结构工程产品的商业需求。该项目完全符合“实现净零和减少环境影响”的竞争优先事项。

The enclosed project is presented by a construction sector startup company (Net Zero Projects - "NZP") that has a vision for more sustainable structural engineered products e.g. concrete beams, slabs and frames.At present the construction sector produces concrete beams based on methods that are biassed toward simplified manufacturing processes. In effect, rectangular form work (elongated boxes) are produced in the required size and then concrete is poured into the form to set solid. However, this is very wasteful, a good proportion of the volume of the concrete beam provides limited strength to the beam so a large proportion of the carbon footprint, associated with concrete and production process, is emitted wastefully.NZP has a radical solution for an "optimised" concrete beam that combines 3D concrete printing, intelligent structural design and steel cables to drastically reduce the amount of concrete, reinforcing steel and embedded carbon needed to produce a concrete beam. To date, NZP has developed and produced a 3D printed concrete beam that provides 70% reduction in embodied carbon and up to 50% reduction in material costs, compared to similar traditional concrete beams.NZP has had commercial interest from construction sector clients. However, at present NZP can only produce a beam suitable for being supported at both ends. To be commercially viable, the company needs to produce cantilever beams (i.e. beams only supported on one side). This is possible but only with the development of some specialist automated design software and experimental testing of cantilever beam designs.The enclosed Fast Start Innovation application will enable NZP to resolve these challenges and exploit commercial demand for lower carbon structural engineered products. This project is fully aligned with the "Achieving net zero and reducing environmental impact" competition priority.