A rheological model for concrete additive manufacturing
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The advent of 3D construction printing has ushered in a revolutionary era, demanding deeper insights into the understanding of cementitious fluid materials. Despite notable progress in additive manufacturing technologies, traditional rheological models (i.e., Bingham Plastic and Herschel-Bulkley) due to asymptotic behaviors of its plastic viscosity term fall short in describing the fluid mechanical properties of 3D printable concrete. This poses substantial challenges to achieving precise control and consistency in its boundless possibilities of mix design formulation. In this paper, we introduce an original rheological model that broadly characterizes the physiomechanical behaviours of non-Newtonian fluids, with a primary emphasis on thixotropic 3D printable cementitious pastes. Contrary to conventional representations, it is successfully demonstrated and validated herein that flow characteristics of 3D printable concrete may be described by two distinct viscosity terms, both of which collectively defines an upper and lower bound apparent viscosity with respect to a proposed activation function. • Originated foundational governing equations to characterize rheological behavior of 3D printable cementitious fluids. • Developed testing protocols to quantify time-dependent structuration and strain-induced breakdown in cementitious fluids. • Established a computational physics framework to simulate complex scenarios with concrete additive manufacturing processes.
Authors: Sean Gip Lim, Ming Jen Tan
Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
Subfield: Building and Construction
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,080
OpenAlex ID: W4403686544