Structural Design and Testing of Digitally Manufactured Concrete Structures

The form freedom enabled by digital fabrication with concrete technologies provides advantages for a wide range of concrete based objects, from architectural to structural elements. The current chapter focuses on the specifics of structural design and engineering of DFC with emphasis on those technologies based on Additive Manufacturing with extrusion. Since it is a new and innovative way to build, a clear common approach to structural engineering has not yet been developed. As a result, this chapter aims to introduce the specific challenges of structural design and engineering with the additive manufacturing technology, providing an overview of structural typologies that have been developed (especially concerning the reinforcement strategies, including fibre reinforcement). Furthermore, the structural principles adopted in DFC and the codified approaches used in conventional reinforced concrete is compared, and putative structural testing procedures and validation methods for DFC are reported.