Preprint Article Version 2 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Mechanical Properties of a 3D Printed Wall Segment Made with an Earthen Mixture

Elena Ferretti
* ORCID logo ,
Massimo Moretti
,
Alberto Chiusoli
,
Lapo Naldoni
,
Francesco De Fabritiis
,
Massimo Visonà
Version 1 : Received: 22 December 2021 / Approved: 22 December 2021 / Online: 22 December 2021 (12:02:15 CET)
Version 2 : Received: 2 January 2022 / Approved: 4 January 2022 / Online: 4 January 2022 (12:24:38 CET)
(This article belongs to the Research Topic Ecofriendly Materials)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Ferretti, E.; Moretti, M.; Chiusoli, A.; Naldoni, L.; De Fabritiis, F.; Visonà, M. Mechanical Properties of a 3D-Printed Wall Segment Made with an Earthen Mixture. Materials 2022, 15, 438. Ferretti, E.; Moretti, M.; Chiusoli, A.; Naldoni, L.; De Fabritiis, F.; Visonà, M. Mechanical Properties of a 3D-Printed Wall Segment Made with an Earthen Mixture. Materials 2022, 15, 438.

Abstract

This study provides a contribution to the research field of 3D printed earthen buildings, focusing, for the first time, on the load-bearing capacity of these structures. The study involves the entire production and testing process of the earthen elements, from design, to the preparation of the mixture and the 3D printing, up to the uniaxial compression test on a wall segment. The results indicate that 3D printed earthen elements have a compressive strength of 2.32 MPa, comparable to that of rammed earth structures. The experimental data also made it possible to draw conclusions on the action of the infill, which seems to have the function of stopping the propagation of cracks. This has a positive effect on the overall behavior of 3D printed earthen elements, since it avoids the onset of dilative behavior in the final stages of the load test and maintains ultimate load values higher than 50% of the maximum load.

Keywords

3D printing; earthen buildings; bio-composites; load-bearing walls; orthotropic material; crack propagation; Poisson’s ratio; volumetric strain; mesoscale behavior; microscale behavior

Subject

Engineering, Civil Engineering

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Comments (1)

Comment 1
Received: 4 January 2022
Commenter: Elena Ferretti
Commenter's Conflict of Interests: Author
Comment: peer-reviewed version
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