Nailing of Layers: A Promising Way to Reinforce Concrete 3D Printing Structures

Today, the extrusion-based 3D printing of concrete is a potential breakthrough technology for the construction industry. It is expected that 3D printing will reduce the cost of construction of civil engineering structures (removal of formwork) and lead to a significant reduction in time and improve working environment conditions. Following the use of this additive manufacturing layer-wise process, it is required to change the way concrete structures are designed and reinforced, especially for the parts of the structure under tension loads. Indeed, the extrusion-based concrete 3D printing process does not allow for the production of conventional reinforced concrete, and there is a need to develop other ways of compensating for the low mechanical performances of concrete, particularly in tension. In this study, the reinforcement of printed structures by using steel nails through the deposited layers of fresh concrete was investigated. Additionally, three-layer and 10-layer samples were reinforced with nails with varying inclination and spacing. The results show that inclined nails can be used to provide a flexural strengthening of the printing material in different directions.