The primary goal of the 3-D printed concrete barracks project, ERDC's second, is to determine 'what it would take for a structural engineer to sign off on the B-hut for permitting,' says Case.Ĭonstruction of the walls is complete. The precast concrete roof should be done by the end of September. A report, with design guidelines, will follow in a few months.įor the engineering, ERDC engaged the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLC. SOM signed on because it had designed a 3D-printed project for the Dept.
of Energy, using a carbon-fiber-reinforced acrylonitrile butadiene styrene thermoplastic material. '3D-printed structures require a different mindset about how the building is constructed,' says Megan Kreiger, ACES project manager. SOM had the awareness and just needed to go from the polymer to concrete.' 'We were looking for an engineer that had the fundamentals down. The research, conducted at the Corps' Construction Engineering Research Laboratory in Champaign, Ill., has several other goals. One is to build on the ERDC 3D-printed concrete barracks research, completed last year on a hut of the same size but with a different design.
Marines are the builders of both prototypes. 'In 2017, it was all about whether we could print a building that size,' says Kreiger.
