Behaviour of additively manufactured concrete cellular columns under axial loading conditions.

Abstract

Additive manufacturing techniques have gained significance during the recent years. Most of the traditional construction techniques are more or less subtractive or in other words, they involve the machining away of extras to achieve the final product and hence their performance will be limited to the availability of moulds. Additive manufacturing methods tend to be more efficient and economical as it reduces the wastage of construction material, time and manpower by enabling the freeform printing of parts. This paper focuses on the behaviour of numerical models of simple additively manufactured concrete cellular columns when subjected to axial loading. The three unit cellular topologies adopted were square, triangular and hexagonal in shape. The numerical model was developed using Ansys Design Modeller and validation was carried out using the experimental data available from previous literature. The parametric study was then conducted on the validated models to obtain the optimum unit cellular shape, as well as study the effect of column height and thickness of walls of unit cells on the ultimate load carrying capacities of column. Strength to weight ratio of the cellular models was obtained to be 47-62% of that of solid columns with the optimum results for square concrete cellular columns. The load carrying capacity of columns decreased with increase in height as expected but the rate of decrease in strength was seen to be about 61% and 86% lesser in triangular and square columns respectively when compared to their solid counterpart. The load carrying capacity was seen to increase with increase in wall thickness of cells of column for all models.