BioMatters

This research explores methods of creating wood-based material for 3D printing freeform concrete formwork. This research project represents a pioneering advancement in 3D printing formwork by investigating robotic 3D printing methods with wood-based materials that are fully biodegradable, reusable, and recyclable. The project presents a novel method of coupling robotic 3D printing of wood-based material with incremental set-on-demand concrete casting to create zero-waste freeform concrete structures. Here, the concrete takes its shape from the 3D-printed wood formwork and, at the same time, shares the 3D printed wood formwork because of its fast-setting time. In other words, concrete stabilizes the 3D printed wood to prevent its deformation on a larger scale. Once the concrete is cured the formwork is removed and is fully recycled by grinding and rehydrating the material with water, thus creating a nearly zero-waste formwork solution. The method is investigated through a case study involving the design and fabrication of a pair of 1.8-meter structural reinforced concrete columns. The case study focuses on utilizing the material from previous 3D printed formwork for each subsequent column, to evaluate the reusability of the material. The case studies explore various aspects, including sequential rebar integration, the correlation between the geometric properties of the 3D printed formwork, and the rheology hydrostatic pressure of the concrete mix in relation to material design, geometry of the formwork, as well as formwork removal and re-usability methods.