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

这个封闭的项目是由一家建筑业初创公司(Net Zero Projects-NZP)提出的，该公司着眼于更可持续的结构工程产品，如混凝土梁、板和框架。目前，建筑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(加长的盒子)按要求的尺寸制作，然后将混凝土浇注到模板中，使其固化。然而，这是非常浪费的，很大一部分混凝土梁的体积为梁提供了有限的强度，因此与混凝土和生产过程相关的很大一部分碳足迹被浪费掉。NZP有一个根本性的解决方案，它将3D混凝土打印、智能结构设计和钢索结合在一起，大幅减少生产混凝土梁所需的混凝土、钢筋和嵌入碳的数量。到目前为止，NZP已经开发和生产了3D打印混凝土梁，与类似的传统混凝土梁相比，其碳排放量减少了70%，材料成本减少了50%。NZP已经获得了建筑业客户的商业兴趣。然而，目前NZP只能生产出适合两端支承的梁。为了在商业上可行，该公司需要生产悬臂梁(即只有一侧支撑的梁)。这是可能的，但只有通过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。封闭式快速启动创新应用程序将使NZP能够解决这些挑战，并开发对低碳结构工程产品的商业需求。该项目与实现净零和减少环境影响的竞争优先事项完全一致。

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.