Interesting Floor Panels 1

3D Printed Concrete Floor System

Interesting concept. Aims to reduce the amount of concrete and steel in floor systems to produce a more sustainable structure. Supposedly there are a couple buildings that are supposed to implement it in Switzerland, but I can't find any details.

I went to a lecture that Phillipe Block presented at the Univ. of Va a few years ago. Interesting stuff on vaulted systems.

This system would act like flat arch terra cotta systems from early 1900s, but I love the visualization of the flow of force that they can get with the 3d printing.

Looks very cool but please don't show that to any of my architect clients!
Seems like thrust resistance would be a big aspect of the design...

Not sure what I am looking at, but seems like a trip hazzard for a floor, lol!

Really, it's NOT feasible
these kind of deck-slab or composite floor could worked for Mechanical Engineering [machines internal frames and products]
Also its similar to previous ideas came from NASA engineers (light weight construction of space shuttle)
In our business, large scale slabs and panels ---> Composite panels are much more suitable (with sandwich plates and filler materials)

kipfoot - I watched a little of it, but 1) hard to focus while also trying to work and 2) I need to finish my PDHs before I watch lectures 'for fun'...I'll have to revisit it. Thanks for sharing. (If you hear of any other interesting lectures, let me know!)

HouseBoy - no kidding. I suspect it'll be quite a while before this can achieve anything resembling regularity. And yes - with such a shallow angle for the arch the thrust must be huge. And it's critical to keeping the panels in place...

JStructsteel - They're 3-D printed panels that use vault and arch forms to resist floor loads through compression alone. The idea is to reduce/eliminate the amount of concrete and steel needed in floor construction.

adn26 - with current tech, sure. But it wasn't too long ago we said you can't build more than 4 floors out of wood framing. Tech evolves, and with it so do our capabilities. What starts as a NASA engineer's budget busting idea often becomes common place for average people 10-30 years later.

phamEng
if you propose/promote a research on prefab hybrid-layered-slab weight-optimization
using composite materials (CFRP, GFRP, Polymers .. etc) [as low cost as possible] that could work..
that would be beneficial to construction industry [especially in bridges and tall building ]
just because of War conditions (steel price rise-up) wood becomes viable alternative, BUT is not sustainable construction materials

Pham this is really cool - thanks for sharing. I’m deep into on some projects with 1900s terra cotta arches right now, so these futuristic arch panels are especially evocative. They are really stunning to look at when viewed from above.

I assume these would require some kind of topping.