Design-for-manufacture of 3D concrete printed structural composites (DfM:3DCP)

英国基础设施的发展和现代化需要无处不在的混凝土使用，但传统的浇注方法效率低下，缺乏灵活性，而且危险。英国工业战略白皮书指出，英国没有足够的熟练劳动力来承担未来10至20年的基本基础设施发展，以交付6000亿GB的国家基础设施和建设管道。因此，在建筑供应链的关键部件自动化方面发展世界领先地位至关重要。3DCP通过在计算机控制的定位过程下将特定体积的胶凝材料精确地放置和固化在连续的层中，消除了对传统模具或模板的需要。这代表着一个彻底的“打破模式”的变化，它挑战了建筑师和工程师的隐含思维模式，数千年来，建筑师和工程师一直需要模具，而模具反过来又限制了建筑部件和系统的形式、几何形状和多样性。3DCP技术隐含地将设计和制造捆绑在一起，而不是目前设计师和施工人员在组织、机构和专业上分开的做法。3DCP正在引起建筑业的全球兴趣，并愿意使用现成的机械臂作为智能材料沉积设备的定位工具，使零部件的制造能够数字驱动。然而，进入商业化所需的吸引力需要建筑师和工程师与他们的客户接触适合制造过程的设计。然而，与混凝土复合材料相关的基础科学根本不存在。这个项目将是世界上第一个系统地研究流变学、工艺控制、设计几何形状和加固设计之间的相互关系，以及这些因素对最终材料硬化性能的影响。该项目更进一步，迈出了将学习到的规则编码到一个软件环境中的第一步，该环境将为未来新设计软件的开发提供种子。

The development and modernisation of UK infrastructure requires the ubiquitous use of concrete, but conventional casting methods are inefficient, inflexible and dangerous. The UK Industrial Strategy White Paper identifies that the UK has insufficient skilled labour to undertake the next 10 to 20 years of essential infrastructure development, to deliver the £600Bn National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline. Hence, the development of world-leadership in automation of key parts of the construction supply chain is critical. 3DCP removes the need for conventional moulds or formwork, by precisely placing and solidifying specific volumes of cementitious material in sequential layers under a computer controlled positioning process. This represents a radical 'mould-breaking' change, that challenges the implicit mind-sets of architects and engineers, where for millennia casting has required moulds, which in turn constrain the form, geometry and variety of building components and systems. 3DCP technology implicitly binds design and manufacture in contrast to current practice where designers and constructors are separated organisationally, institutionally and professionally. 3DCP is creating worldwide interest from the construction sector and lends itself to using readily available robotic arms as positioning tools for clever material deposition devices, which enable the manufacture of components to be digitally driven.However the required pull into commercialisation requires architects and engineers to engage their clients with designs suitable for the manufacturing process. However the underlying science as it relates to concrete composite materials simply does not exist. This project will be the first in the world to systematically investigate the interrelationships between rheology, process control, design geometry and reinforcement design in relation to there impact on the hardened properties of the final material. The project goes further and makes the first steps towards encoding the rules learnt into a software environment that will seed the development of new design software in the future.