Published by : International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

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Vol. 9 Issue 09, September-2020

Review Paper on Applications and Techniques in

Concrete Printing
B. Ritish Reddy1, J. Rakesh2, B. Varun3, B. Rakesh Kumar4, Asst. Prof G. Lalitha5
1,2,3,4,Dept. of Civil Engineering, VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering &Technology, Telangana, India
5Asst prof Dept. of Civil Engineering, VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering &Technology, Telangana, India

Abstract: 3D concrete printing is an emerging technique in software. And the building was the tallest construction with
construction field. 3D printing mainly focused on reduction of concrete printing technology till now in the world.
formwork, utilization of time and using the materials eco-
friendly. 3D printing is mainly divided into two techniques 2.2 Antony Thorpe, et al. (May, 2014)
where contour crafting may revolutionize construction
industry in near future .These technologies could create a new
They developed a concrete printing machine using additive
era of architecture that is better adapted to the environment manufacturing (AM) technology. They printed a Wonder
and integrated with engineering function. Despite of many bench using concrete printing technology. First they
advantages, the limitations of this technology is also designed a 3D cad model for the bench, later it was
summarized in conclusion. converted into STL (stereo lithography) format. Then
printing path was generated. After that they developed a G-
Keywords: 3D printing of concrete, formwork, motor, STL file code for printing process, then printing of bench was done.
format, and computer aided design, contour crafting, and In this project, they used a concrete made with both cement
construction digital construction. and gypsum materials. The concrete density was
2400kg/cubic meters. The concrete was 3 times stronger in
1. INTRODUCTION compression and flexure when compared with normal
We know that the construction industry almost runs with concrete. The strength of this concrete was found around
concrete. From a recent study, form work is responsible for 100-110mpa. In this project they used 9 mm nozzle for
80% of the total construction cost of concrete. printing operation. And it prints 1.4kg/minute. The bench
Disadvantages of following conventional construction height was 0.8 m and it weighs 1 tonne. They provided
methods are: formwork, time consuming, more waste functional voids in bench construction and later they post
generated and labour safety while doing work, huge tensioned the voids such that the bench would be strong in
amounts of greenhouse gases evolved. 3D concrete printing tension also.
could solve many drawbacks in conventional method of
construction. It is recently gaining popularity in 2.3 Byung Wan Jo, et al. (2020)
construction industry. 3D printing, also known as additive They printed a hollow concrete wall using 3D concrete
manufacturing (AM), is a group of emerging techniques for printing technology. First they developed a prototype
fabricating 3D structures directly with a software in model for checking its performance before developing full
successive layers with less waste material. Initially AM size model. Using that prototype, they printed the wall. The
technologies were developed in the 1980s. Currently, AM prototype model was 1Mx1Mx1M in dimensions. The
technologies become the main source of modern product study was mainly focused with 3 targets. 1) 3D space
Development and successfully applied in a wide range of motion control.2) Properties of concrete material.3)
sectors including aerospace and automotive manufacturing, Material dispensing process. In motion control, they used
biomedical, consumer and food. FDM technology with help of software which they
personally developed. In material properties, they used
2. LITERATURE REVIEW conventional concrete with a small size of aggregates. In
the dispensing process, they used a screw type nozzle for
2.1 Izabela Hager, et al. (2016) the extrusion process. The diameter of the nozzle is 50 mm.
They have studied regarding the history and an overview They did a compressive strength test on printed models on
about the concrete printing technology. And also they different mix designs. And it’s average compressive
mentioned some case studies regarding the application of strength is obtained around 61Mpa.
this technology. In1983, Charles.W introduced the first 3D
concrete printing technology. He used STL (stereo 2.4 Van Der Putten, et al. (July 2020)
lithography) technology for this. Then later, another They conducted an experiment on printed samples to test
technology named as FDM (Fused deposition modelling) the levels of chloride penetration in it and compared it with
was introduced by S.Scott crump in 1988.The first case the one which is built using conventional construction
study was in 2014, Dutch architects built a house using method. They found that there is more shrinkage, internal
concrete printing. They built the house with individual voids and crack formation, increases the amount of
components. It took around 3 months for construction. The preferential penetration path for chemical substances when
second case study was Winsum Company built a model followed this technique. The penetration of chloride in
house using their own software. Then later, they built a 5 moulded specimens is uniform all over the entire sample
storey building using concrete printing with the same

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Vol. 9 Issue 09, September-2020

height and the same conclusion can be made for printed strength of structure regarding its orientation. They found
specimens fabricated with a zero minute time gap. As the that orientation by X-axis had 20% green strength more
inter layer time interval increases, the amount of chloride than in orientation by Z-axis. Also the percentage change
ingress also increases. between the strength in orientation by X-axis and
orientation by Z-axis was decreased to 12% and 5% for 1
2.5 Imane Krimi, et al. (June 2017) and 7-days post-cured samples, respectively and finalised
They demonstrated about two key parameters to evaluate that post-curing procedure in 3D printed geopolymer
the printability of binding materials like cement. The key structures reduces the anisotropic phenomenon.
parameters are: Extrudability and Buildability. Four mixes
were tested to determine their extrudability and 2.9 Yasmin Tarhan, et al. (April 2019)
buildability. Extrusion was influenced by sand granular They started up with the detailed explanation from CAD
distribution. In this study ‘SLI’ sand has a spread granular file to 3D printed object and collected information about
distribution while BB sand has a tight granulometry. 3D printers about where they started and the evolution of
Buildability expresses the early age resistance of the 3D printers till date. They researched on the properties of
material. It is strongly correlated to the yield stress. The the concrete mix used for 3D printing and explained about
properties presented in this paper were used to define a the properties which were extrudability, workability, open
printable mix design through different iterations. This mix time which should be enough to maintain extrudability,
was then tested in a large scale 3D printer, no clogging was contact strength between layers, aggregates, water-cement
recorded. ratio with at least of 0.25 and buildability. Also explained
about the present challenges and opportunities which the
2.6 Rabab Allouzi, et al. (April 2019) world of construction overcome the limitations of the past
This paper proposes the use of nanotechnology in real and found new technology for large scale development.
structural engineering projects with the 3D printing Finally they concluded with some solutions to make 3D
construction procedure. They suggested the use of concrete more efficient.
graphene nanomaterial for 3D printing of concrete
structures. Recently, it is getting more attention due to its 2.10 Amitkumar D. Raval, et al. (March 2020)
remarkable properties including its tensile stress of 130GPa They discussed the risks and challenges, even having many
at strain of 0.25 and Young’s modulus of 1TPa. While benefits of this technology as the technology is in the initial
traditional types of concrete is not convenient for 3D stage and has many limitations. Environmental concerns
printing and due to the extraordinary properties including are also discussed in the paper. They demonstrated many
its tensile strength, compressive strength, and Young’s processes involved in concrete printing. Formulating
modulus, this paper suggests the use of treated graphene computer models plays a crucial role in implementation of
oxide as nanomaterial for 3D printing of Concrete this technology. Development in 3D computer graphics
structures makes it possible to fabricate such digital models easily
using commercially available as well as open-source
2.7 Manju.R, et al. (August 2019) software packages. They concluded that he investigation
They have studied on the process of additive manufacturing required in the printing technique includes selection new
(AM) and explained the detail procedure of working of 3D nozzle with optimum size and shape, a novel method of
printers where they use g-codes. Here, for the machine the extrusion and also a new method of delivery that enhance
x, y and z coordinates are given and the printer is the overall quality of the printing.
connected with a robotic arm setup and nozzle across
printers. Also gave the details about softwares for slicing 2.11 Guowei, et al. (April 2017)
which were the details required by the printers. Mentioned They mainly focused their work on studying current
about the stepwise process of 3D printing which the methodologies of printing technology and evaluated
structure was built under the given program .Took some methods for materials feasible for concrete printing. They
case studies regarding 3D printing around the world. started up with the explanation of three large scale 3D
Finally they concluded by giving an idea about the future printing systems which have been successfully
scope of 3D printing. implemented in the construction industry. They also
summarised the commonly used raw materials and the
2.8 Behzad Nematollahi, et al. (2017) measures to be taken to get the critical requirements of
They mainly focused on the techniques through which 3D freeform construction process. Measuring methods to
printing is done and categorised as extrusion-based determine the fresh and hardened properties of concrete at
technique and powder-based technique and further early stage were also suggested. The concrete mixture must
classified both regarding those techniques among them be easy-flowable and easy-extrudable, aggregate and coarse
under extrusion-based technique, concrete printing was sand must be eliminated during the preparation.
mentioned where the made a bench of length 2m, width
0.9m and a height of 0.8m which comprised of 128 layers 2.12 Victor Molodin, et al. (April 2020)
with 6mm thickness which included 12 voids. Under They experimented upon the use of single-stage
powder-based technique, powder-based 3DCP using polystyrene concrete as the material for fabricating objects
geopolymer was mentioned where they analysed the using concrete printing technology .They found that even

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Vol. 9 Issue 09, September-2020

in case of complex builded structures, the labour

consumption of formwork is far less than 40% and 3D
printers will take only this small amount of work. A wall
printed using polystyrene concrete has a vast number of
advantages and it also helps us to ensure the uniform
distribution of polystyrene granules over the whole wall
material which in turn increases the high quality thermal
resistance and ensures the specified strength characteristics
of the erected wall.

3. CONCLUSION
Usage of 3D printing concrete technology is an upcoming
technology in future. The literature discussed in the present
paper has given an overview of the basic process involved
in this technology and the application of this technology.
This 3D concrete printing technology has a wide range of
advantages like Time efficiency, Freedom of building any
geometrical design, environmentally friendly construction,
Economy etc. Although it has disadvantages like Accuracy
in the work need skilled labour etc. But now-a- days there
will be some ambiguity in strength and performance of this
technology. Here we are concluding that this is a secured
construction technology and we all need to accept this
technology in the construction field.

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