I serve, as one of a group of advisers, for a confidential project with a short-term goal of 3D printing, as a demonstration, another concrete house in the U.S. Based on what I have learned so far (two months), large-scale 3D printing could explode within civil engineering in the next few years, although maybe not in the U.S.
Elon Musk and his crew of engineers land rockets in reverse and reuse them. In the same spirit of creativity/innovation, maybe the U.S. civil/construction engineering community can 3D print, in concrete and other materials, pre-cast components of buildings and other structures and entire buildings and other structures. By "other structures" I mean essentially everything we now do in formed concrete and beyond.
Why try to do it?
* Reduce construction costs (less manual labor, less material, less wasted material, less energy use, etc.)
* Produce structures that are more resistant to natural disasters and terrorism (e.g., use new materials and stronger shapes/configurations)
* Slash prototyping time and fail faster
* Increase construction site safety
* Reduce construction time
* Customize each product
* Produce a whole new set of tech and other jobs (educators-trainers, structure designers, building code experts, programmers/coders, robot designers-manufacturers-transporters-operators-maintainers, finance experts, site acquisition specialists, government regulations/relations personnel, etc.).
*Provide greatly improved affordable housing in the U.S. and around the globe.
I am finding, as I suspect you have, that small 3D printers are showing up everywhere -- in K-12 schools and in universities, in public libraries, in homes, etc. Use of larger 3D printers is taking off in manufacturing. In that sector, it is sometimes referred to as additive manufacturing, in contrast with traditional reductive manufacturing (e.g., milling, turning, boring, etc.).
My hope is that some of you -- maybe "off the top of your head" -- can answer this question: Who, in mostly U.S. engineering academia or practice is studying/teaching/researching/developing large-scale 3D printing within the civil/construction engineering field?
In addition, any thoughts you may have would be appreciated.
Thank you.
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Stuart G. Walesh Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE(Ret.), Dist.M.ASCE, F.NSPE
S.G. Walesh Consulting
219-242-1704
stuwalesh@...www.HelpingYouEngineerYourFuture.comAuthor of Introduction to Creativity and Innovation for Engineers, 2017, Pearson
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