Criteria development for sustainable construction manufacturing in Construction Industry 4.0: Theoretical and laboratory investigations

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present the sustainable performance criteria for 3D printing practices, while reporting the primarily computations and lab experimentations. The potential advantages for integrating three-dimensional (3D) printing into house construction are significant in Construction Industry 4.0; these include the capacity for mass customisation of designs and parameters for functional and aesthetic purposes, reduction in construction waste from highly precise material placement and the use of recycled waste products in layer deposition materials. With the ultimate goal of improving construction efficiency and decreasing building costs, applying Strand7 Finite Element Analysis software, a numerical model was designed specifically for 3D printing in a cement mix incorporated with recycled waste product high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and found that construction of an arched truss-like roof was structurally feasible without the need for steel reinforcements.

Design/methodology/approach

The research method consists of three key steps: design a prototype of possible structural layouts for the 3DSBP, create 24 laboratory samples using a brittle material to identify operation challenges and analyse the correlation between time and scale size and synthesising the numerical analysis and laboratory observations to develop the evaluation criteria for 3DSBP products. The selected house consists of layouts that resemble existing house such as living room, bed rooms and garages.

Findings

Some criteria for sustainable construction using 3DP were developed. The Strand7 model results suggested that under the different load combinations as stated in AS1700, the maximum tensile stress experienced is 1.70 MPa and maximum compressive stress experienced is 3.06 MPa. The cement mix of the house is incorporated with rHDPE, which result in a tensile strength of 3 MPa and compressive strength of 26 MPa. That means the house is structurally feasible without the help of any reinforcements. Investigations had also been performed on comparing a flat and arch and found the maximum tensile stress within a flat roof would cause the concrete to fail. Whereas an arch roof had reduced the maximum tensile stress to an acceptable range for concrete to withstand loadings. Currently, there are a few 3D printing techniques that can be adopted for this purpose, and more advanced technology in the future could eliminate the current limitation on 3D printing and bring forth this idea as a common practice in house construction.

Originality/value

This study provides some novel criteria for evaluating a 3D printing performance and discusses challenges of 3D utilisation from design and managerial perspectives. The criteria are relied on maximum utility and minimum impact pillars which can be used by scholars and practitioners to measure their performance. The criteria and the results of the computation and experimentation can be considered as critical benchmarks for future practices.

Citation

Tahmasebinia, F., M.E. Sepasgozar, S., Shirowzhan, S., Niemela, M., Tripp, A., Nagabhyrava, S., Mansuri, k.k.Z. and Alonso-Marroquin, F. (2020), "Criteria development for sustainable construction manufacturing in Construction Industry 4.0: Theoretical and laboratory investigations", Construction Innovation, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 379-400. https://doi.org/10.1108/CI-10-2019-0103