Building additive manufacturing - a materials evaluation

The United Kingdom is currently in the grip of a housing crisis, a recent report from the House of Lords stated that affordable housing in Britain is a “modern plaque” that could jeopardize our standards of living for future generations. This paper aims to attempts to influence the problem of housing shortage by evaluating the potential of implementing fast Building Additive Manufacturing (BAM) as a construction process. To validate the feasibility of BAM as a building process a variety of compressive and slump tests were conducted to assess the capabilities of concrete paste as a layer-by-layer build material. A structure was fabricated to represent a FFF based BAM Process; the tests determined that nozzle design limitations, flow ability of concrete and resistance to slump are key material characteristics in constructing a house structural elements. Furthermore, the use of recyclable natural and steel wool fibres did not contribute to a mixtures compressive strength but did significantly increase its flexural strength.