Finite element buildability analysis of 3D printed concrete including failure by elastic buckling and plastic flow

The present work proposes a novel framework for the numerical simulation of 3D printed concrete structures. For this, a constitutive model is proposed to reproduce the material behavior featuring aging, tensile and compressive damage, irreversible strain and creep. This is combined with a large-displacement framework to perform the buildability analysis of 3D printed concrete structures taking into account failure by both elastic buckling and plastic flow. In this work, a total of four numerical simulations of 3D printing of concrete are included, all of them being experiments reported in the literature: a straight wall, a hollow cylindrical wall, a large hollow square wall and a small hollow square wall. The results show the ability of the model to reproduce failure by elastic buckling and plastic flow with precision, effectively predicting the buildability of the 3D printed concrete structures. • A novel framework is proposed for buildability analysis of 3D printing concrete. • The model reproduces failure by elastic buckling and plastic flow with accuracy. • Constitutive model featuring aging damage, irreversible strain, creep is proposed. • Printing process is simulated using a printing path read from a GCode file. • The printing of four concrete structures is simulated with accuracy.