ConsulTable Challenge

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©The Form Foundation
©The Form Foundation
©The Form Foundation

ConsulTable Challenge

This concept for a 3D concrete printed (3DCP) bridge, was designed and modelled by The Form Foundation. Summum Engineering provided structural consultancy for the overall concept and design as well as basic analysis for the printed model. The concept attempts to exploit the unidirectional, contour printing of contemporary 3D concrete printers, turning it into an asset rather than purely a constraint. The design emphasizes the expected flow of forces from the bridge deck towards the two outer line supports. The system is composed of interlocking elements, printed in different orientations, sliding into place to allow for modular construction.

This project won the overall prize as well as the 1st prize in the category ‘resourcefulness’ of the 3D concrete printed bridge design challenge, organized by ConsulTable, part of De Bouwcampus. The submission was a collaboration with Pim van Wylick of The Form Foundation. The submissions were judged on the basis of circularity, strength and resourcefulness.

The award ceremony was held on January 16th, 2019, at the annual Infratech trade fair, at Ahoy, Rotterdam, where the three finalists had their 3D printed designs on display for the entire week. After a lecture on developments in 3D printed concrete around the world, Prof. Theo Salet of Eindhoven University of Technology, handed out the awards. The event and our 3D printed model were made possible by ConsulTable, BAM Infra and Weber Beamix, printed at their brand new 3D concrete printing facility.

The competition brief was quite restrictive and asked for a model of 2.36m long, by 0.6m high, spanning a space of 1.2m by 0.3m high. The model had to sustain a 1 kN point load resulting in compression stresses only of no more than 15 MPa, and had to consist of elements weighing no more than 50 kg each. Printing layers were 30mm wide, 10mm high, with a fillet radius of 30mm or more, and were not allowed to cantilever more than 10mm per ten layers.