A comparative study on environmental performance of 3D printing and conventional casting of concrete products with industrial wastes

3D printing construction techniques are believed to have potential sustainability benefits, including improved resource efficiency, increased construction productivity, and construction of complex geometries without supporting structures. 3D printable concrete materials, when introducing industrial...

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Main Authors: Liu, Siyu, Lu, Bing, Li, Hongliang, Pan, Zehua, Jiang, Jingjing, Qian, Shunzhi
Other Authors: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2022
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/161824
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1618242022-09-21T02:05:04Z A comparative study on environmental performance of 3D printing and conventional casting of concrete products with industrial wastes Liu, Siyu Lu, Bing Li, Hongliang Pan, Zehua Jiang, Jingjing Qian, Shunzhi School of Civil and Environmental Engineering School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Singapore Centre for 3D Printing Engineering::Environmental engineering Additive Manufacturing Environmental Sustainability 3D printing construction techniques are believed to have potential sustainability benefits, including improved resource efficiency, increased construction productivity, and construction of complex geometries without supporting structures. 3D printable concrete materials, when introducing industrial wastes such as fly ash, silica fume, and slag, may also bring additional sustainability benefits. These advantages need to be verified quantitatively. This study investigated the environmental impact of 3D printable concrete materials using industrial wastes compared with the conventional ones via life cycle assessment (LCA). Two types of concrete materials applied in concrete casting or 3D printing were compared, that is, cement-based concrete and geopolymer concrete. The results indicate that using waste materials as cement replacement could bring environmental benefits; however, such environmental benefits might be diminished with increasing activator content in geopolymer concrete for 3D concrete printing. Based on the material-level LCA results, this study further conducted an LCA study at the component level, which investigated the life-cycle environmental impact of concrete components of different shapes constructed by Contour Crafting method. Results show that the potential environmental benefit of 3D concrete printing increases with the level of building complexity while decreases with the reuse times of formwork, which leads to the conclusion that 3D concrete printing method is more desirable for constructing non-repetitive freeform concrete structures. Nanyang Technological University The authors would like to thank the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, NTU Singapore for providing the additional startup research funding support for assistant professors. 2022-09-21T02:05:04Z 2022-09-21T02:05:04Z 2022 Journal Article Liu, S., Lu, B., Li, H., Pan, Z., Jiang, J. & Qian, S. (2022). A comparative study on environmental performance of 3D printing and conventional casting of concrete products with industrial wastes. Chemosphere, 298, 134310-. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.134310 0045-6535 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/161824 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.134310 35301991 2-s2.0-85126452742 298 134310 en Chemosphere © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Engineering::Environmental engineering
Additive Manufacturing
Environmental Sustainability
spellingShingle Engineering::Environmental engineering
Additive Manufacturing
Environmental Sustainability
Liu, Siyu
Lu, Bing
Li, Hongliang
Pan, Zehua
Jiang, Jingjing
Qian, Shunzhi
A comparative study on environmental performance of 3D printing and conventional casting of concrete products with industrial wastes
description 3D printing construction techniques are believed to have potential sustainability benefits, including improved resource efficiency, increased construction productivity, and construction of complex geometries without supporting structures. 3D printable concrete materials, when introducing industrial wastes such as fly ash, silica fume, and slag, may also bring additional sustainability benefits. These advantages need to be verified quantitatively. This study investigated the environmental impact of 3D printable concrete materials using industrial wastes compared with the conventional ones via life cycle assessment (LCA). Two types of concrete materials applied in concrete casting or 3D printing were compared, that is, cement-based concrete and geopolymer concrete. The results indicate that using waste materials as cement replacement could bring environmental benefits; however, such environmental benefits might be diminished with increasing activator content in geopolymer concrete for 3D concrete printing. Based on the material-level LCA results, this study further conducted an LCA study at the component level, which investigated the life-cycle environmental impact of concrete components of different shapes constructed by Contour Crafting method. Results show that the potential environmental benefit of 3D concrete printing increases with the level of building complexity while decreases with the reuse times of formwork, which leads to the conclusion that 3D concrete printing method is more desirable for constructing non-repetitive freeform concrete structures.
author2 School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
author_facet School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Liu, Siyu
Lu, Bing
Li, Hongliang
Pan, Zehua
Jiang, Jingjing
Qian, Shunzhi
format Article
author Liu, Siyu
Lu, Bing
Li, Hongliang
Pan, Zehua
Jiang, Jingjing
Qian, Shunzhi
author_sort Liu, Siyu
title A comparative study on environmental performance of 3D printing and conventional casting of concrete products with industrial wastes
title_short A comparative study on environmental performance of 3D printing and conventional casting of concrete products with industrial wastes
title_full A comparative study on environmental performance of 3D printing and conventional casting of concrete products with industrial wastes
title_fullStr A comparative study on environmental performance of 3D printing and conventional casting of concrete products with industrial wastes
title_full_unstemmed A comparative study on environmental performance of 3D printing and conventional casting of concrete products with industrial wastes
title_sort comparative study on environmental performance of 3d printing and conventional casting of concrete products with industrial wastes
publishDate 2022
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/161824
_version_ 1745574634438262784