Use of Hemp Fibres in 3D Printed Concrete

Author(s):  
Naomi Zahra van Hierden ◽  
Florent Gauvin ◽  
S.S. Lucas ◽  
T.A.M. Salet ◽  
Henricus Jozef Hubertus Brouwers

The use of fibres as reinforcement of 3D printed concrete is widely known and applicable in many situations. However, most of the applied fibres are not produced from renewable resources. Natural fibres are commonly considered as an ecological alternative for these fibres. In order to contribute to improvement of the sustainability of 3D printed concrete, natural fibres such as hemp can replace these synthetic fibres. The objective of this study is therefore to study the possibilities of adding hemp fibres for 3D printing purposes. Due to the comparable properties of hemp and synthetic fibres, natural fibres tend to be suitable for printing purposes. Mixes are made at laboratory scale using batches of 1 – 3 kg. The study examines the effect of adding hemp fibres for the mechanical and fresh state properties of hemp-based concrete. Mechanical properties from bending tests and direct tensile tests show comparable properties of mortars containing hemp fibres and mortars containing synthetic fibres. The fresh state behaviour of the designed concrete mix showed promising and comparable results for a mix based on 0.5wt% of hemp fibres. One of the major issues regarding the use of natural fibres is the irregularity and high water uptake of the fibres. Due to its high hydrophilicity natural hemp fibres take up much water and can therefore degrade. For this study the effect of water uptake did not have much influence on the mixing and printing purposes. By printing a wall element on laboratory scale the use of hemp fibre-reinforced 3D concrete is validated.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (05) ◽  
pp. 2050051
Author(s):  
Khawla Essassi ◽  
Jean-Luc Rebiere ◽  
Abderrahim El Mahi ◽  
Mohamed Amine Ben Souf ◽  
Anas Bouguecha ◽  
...  

In this research contribution, the static behavior and failure mechanisms are developed for a three-dimensional (3D) printed dogbone, auxetic structure and sandwich composite using acoustic emissions (AEs). The skins, core and whole sandwich are manufactured using the same bio-based material which is polylactic acid reinforced with micro-flax fibers. Tensile tests are conducted on the skins and the core while bending tests are conducted on the sandwich composite. Those tests are carried out on four different auxetic densities in order to investigate their effect on the mechanical and damage properties of the materials. To monitor the invisible damage and damage propagation, a highly sensitive AE testing method is used. It is found that the sandwich with high core density displays advanced mechanical properties in terms of bending stiffness, shear stiffness, facing bending stress and core shear stress. In addition, the AE data points during testing present an amplitude range of 40–85[Formula: see text]dB that characterizes visible and invisible damage up to failure.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 2563
Author(s):  
Ivan Grgić ◽  
Vjekoslav Wertheimer ◽  
Mirko Karakašić ◽  
Željko Ivandić

Recent soft tissue studies have reported issues that occur during experimentation, such as the tissue slipping and rupturing during tensile loads, the lack of standard testing procedure and equipment, the necessity for existing laboratory equipment adaptation, etc. To overcome such issues and fulfil the need for the determination of the biomechanical properties of the human gracilis and the superficial third of the quadriceps tendons, 3D printed clamps with metric thread profile-based geometry were developed. The clamps’ geometry consists of a truncated pyramid pattern, which prevents the tendons from slipping and rupturing. The use of the thread application in the design of the clamp could be used in standard clamping development procedures, unlike in previously custom-made clamps. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) was used as a 3D printing technique, together with polylactic acid (PLA), which was used as a material for clamp printing. The design was confirmed and the experiments were conducted by using porcine and human tendons. The findings justify the usage of 3D printing technology for parts manufacturing in the case of tissue testing and establish independence from the existing machine clamp system, since it was possible to print clamps for each prepared specimen and thus reduce the time for experiment setup.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A Hoffmann ◽  
Amanda C Rodrigues ◽  
Nicholas Uncles ◽  
Lorenzo Rossi

Abstract The heat plume associated with fire has been hypothesized to cause sufficient water loss from trees to induce embolism and hydraulic failure. However, it is unclear whether the water transport path remains sufficiently intact during scorching or burning of foliage to sustain high water loss. We measured water uptake by branches of Magnolia grandiflora while exposing them to a range of fire intensities, and examined factors influencing continued water uptake after fire. Burning caused a 22-fold mean increase in water uptake, with greatest rates of water loss observed at burn intensities that caused complete consumption of leaves. Such rapid uptake is possible only with steep gradients in water potential, which would likely result in substantial cavitation of xylem and loss of conductivity in intact stems. Water uptake continued after burning was complete, and was greatest following burn intensities that killed leaves but did not consume them. This post-fire uptake was mostly driven by rehydration of the remaining tissues, rather than evaporation from the tissues. Our results indicate that the fire-plume hypothesis can be expanded to include a wide range of burning conditions experienced by plants. High rates of water loss are sustained during burning, even when leaves are killed or completely consumed.


Author(s):  
Fayu Wang ◽  
Nicholas Kyriakides ◽  
Christis Chrysostomou ◽  
Eleftherios Eleftheriou ◽  
Renos Votsis ◽  
...  

AbstractFabric reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM) composites, also known as textile reinforced mortars (TRM), an inorganic matrix constituting fibre fabrics and cement-based mortar, are becoming a widely used composite material in Europe for upgrading the seismic resistance of existing reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings. One way of providing seismic resistance upgrading is through the application of the proposed FRCM system on existing masonry infill walls to increase their stiffness and integrity. To examine the effectiveness of this application, the bond characteristics achieved between (a) the matrix and the masonry substrate and (b) the fabric and the matrix need to be determined. A series of experiments including 23 material performance tests, 15 direct tensile tests of dry fabric and composites, and 30 shear bond tests between the matrix and brick masonry, were carried out to investigate the fabric-to-matrix and matrix-to-substrate bond behaviour. In addition, different arrangements of extruded polystyrene (XPS) plates were applied to the FRCM to test the shear bond capacity of this insulation system when used on a large-scale wall.


Technologies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Alessia Romani ◽  
Andrea Mantelli ◽  
Paolo Tralli ◽  
Stefano Turri ◽  
Marinella Levi ◽  
...  

Fused filament fabrication allows the direct manufacturing of customized and complex products although the layer-by-layer appearance of this process strongly affects the surface quality of the final parts. In recent years, an increasing number of post-processing treatments has been developed for the most used materials. Contrarily to other additive manufacturing technologies, metallization is not a common surface treatment for this process despite the increasing range of high-performing 3D printable materials. The objective of this work is to explore the use of physical vapor deposition sputtering for the chromium metallization of thermoplastic polymers and composites obtained by fused filament fabrication. The thermal and mechanical properties of five materials were firstly evaluated by means of differential scanning calorimetry and tensile tests. Meanwhile, a specific finishing torture test sample was designed and 3D printed to perform the metallization process and evaluate the finishing on different geometrical features. Furthermore, the roughness of the samples was measured before and after the metallization, and a cost analysis was performed to assess the cost-efficiency. To sum up, the metallization of five samples made with different materials was successfully achieved. Although some 3D printing defects worsened after the post-processing treatment, good homogeneity on the finest details was reached. These promising results may encourage further experimentations as well as the development of new applications, i.e., for the automotive and furniture fields.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3626
Author(s):  
Łukasz Hojdys ◽  
Piotr Krajewski

This paper presents the results of direct tensile tests performed on six different FRCM (fabric reinforced cementitious matrix) strengthening systems used for masonry structures. The emphasis was placed on the determination of the mechanical parameters of each tested system and a comparison of their tensile behaviour in terms of first crack stress, ultimate stress, ultimate strain, cracking pattern, failure mode and idealised tensile stress-strain curve. In addition to the basic mechanical tensile parameters, accidental load eccentricities, matrix tensile strengths, and matrix modules of elasticity were estimated. The results of the tests showed that the tensile behaviour of FRCM composites strongly depends on the parameters of the constituent materials (matrix and fabric). In the tests, tensile failure of reinforcement and fibre slippage within the matrix were observed. The presented research showed that the accidental eccentricities did not substantially affect the obtained results and that the more slender the specimen used, the more consistent the obtained results. The analysis based on a rule of mixtures showed that the direct tensile to flexural tensile strength ratio of the matrixes used in the test was 0.2 to 0.4. Finally, the tensile stress–strain relationship for the tested FRCMs was idealised by a bi- or tri-linear curve.


Materials ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 2352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Behzad Nematollahi ◽  
Praful Vijay ◽  
Jay Sanjayan ◽  
Ali Nazari ◽  
Ming Xia ◽  
...  

This paper investigates the effect of polypropylene (PP) fibres on the fresh and hardened properties of 3D-printed fibre-reinforced geopolymer mortars. Different percentages of PP fibres ranging between 0.25% and 1.00% by volume were added to an optimised geopolymer mixture. All samples showed reasonable workability and extrudability. In addition, shape-retention ability in the fresh state was investigated as a major requirement for 3D-printing. The compressive strength of the printed specimens was tested in the hardened state in three loading directions, viz. longitudinal, perpendicular, and lateral. The flexural strength of samples was also tested in the longitudinal and lateral directions. In addition, the interlayer bond strength was investigated. Fibre addition seems to influence compressive strengths positively only when the loading is perpendicular to the interface plane. This is due to the preferential fibre alignment parallel to the direction of extrusion. The addition of fibre significantly enhanced the flexural performance of the printed samples. The use of fibre dosages of 0.75 and 1.00 vol % caused deflection-hardening behaviour of the 3D-printed geopolymers and, hence, a significantly higher fracture energy in comparison to specimens without fibre or with lower fibre content. However, an increase in the fibre volume caused some minor reduction in interlayer bond strength. With respect to properties in the fresh state, higher fibre volumes caused better shape-retention ability in the printed samples. The results indicate the possibility of printing fibre-reinforced geopolymers which meet all the necessary properties in both the fresh and hardened states.


2014 ◽  
Vol 604 ◽  
pp. 285-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saulius Vaitkus ◽  
Rūta Karpavičiūtė ◽  
Sigitas Vėjelis ◽  
Lina Lekūnaitė

Natural fibres from flax and hemp are used as raw materials for efficient thermal insulation. In current work, tests were carried out using chopped and combed long flax fibres as well as chopped and combed long hemp fibres. Investigations have shown that thermal conductivity of natural fibres depends on their preparation method (combing, chopping) and materials density.


Materials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 2520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Olesik ◽  
Marcin Godzierz ◽  
Mateusz Kozioł

Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) composites reinforced with finely powdered waste glass were identified as a potential material for 3D printed structures for use in low-duty frictional applications. A recently published 3D printing model was used to calculate the limits in the filament feed rate and printing speed. Tribological tests (pin-on-disc method) of the printed composites were performed for different print-path directions. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was performed on the samples and the composites showed a higher crystallinity compared with LDPE, which partially explains the higher elastic modulus of the composites determined during static tensile tests. Using a fine glass powder as reinforcement improved the wear resistance of LDPE by 50% due to the formation of a sliding film on the sample’s surface. An evident effect of friction direction vs. the printed path direction on wear was found; which was likely related to differences in the removal of friction products from the friction area for different print-path directions. The LDPE composites with fine waste glass particles are promising materials for low-duty frictional applications and should be the subject of further research.


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