Experimental Study on the Thermal Performance of a 3D Printed Concrete Prototype Building

Abstract 3D printed concrete (3DPC) has drawn continuous research attention due to its potential to boost the development of construction industry. In this paper, an on-site experiment has been conducted to investigate the thermal performance of a real 3D printed concrete building. Its potential defects are detected with the infrared thermography technique. Thermal properties of the main wall body of the tested house are calculated with on-site monitoring data. The results identify a highly non-uniform temperature distribution on the exterior wall surface of the 3DPC tested house, which is mainly caused by variations of printing path and cross-section design. Other 3D printing characteristics, such as number of layers per printing, rest time during printing process and lay-by-layer appearance, can also bring side-effect to the thermal performance of 3DPC and generate thermal defects. The calculated average values of thermal resistance (R-value), effective thermal conductivity and thermal transmittance (U-value) are respectively 0.31 m2•K/W, 0.64 W/(m•K) and 2.27 W/(m2•K). The results demonstrate insufficient and unsatisfied thermal insulating performance of the 3DPC envelops as well as the complexity to depict its heat transfer process. Based on the research findings, further detailed studies of 3DPC in thermal aspect are strongly recommended.