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04/08/2017

PUSAT PENGAJIAN SISWAZAH

CENTRE FOR GRADUATE STUDIES
UNIVERSITI TUN HUSSEIN ONN MALAYSIA

PROGRESS REPORT FOR RESEARCH STUDENT

SEMESTER 1 SESSION 2019 / 2020

TITLE
EVALUATION OF 3D PRINTING ON CONCRETE MATERIAL FOR CONCRETE
STRUCTURE USING KENAF FIBER AS REINFORCEMENT MATERIAL
BACKGROUND
Pumping concrete through metal pipelines by piston pumps was introduced in the United States in
Milwaukee in 1933. Many new developments have since been made in the concrete pumping field.
These include new and improved pumps, truck-mounted and stationary placing booms, and pipeline
and hose that withstand higher pumping pressures. As a result of these innovations, concrete
placement by pumps has become one of the most widely used practices of the construction
industry. Pumping may be used for most concrete construction, but is especially useful where space
for construction equipment is limited. Concrete pumping frees hoists and cranes to deliver the other
materials of construction concurrently with concrete placing. Also, other crafts can work
unhampered by concrete operations. A steady supply of pumpable concrete is necessary for
satisfactory pumping. A pumpable concrete, like conventional concrete, requires good quality
control, i.e., uniform, properly graded aggregate, materials uniformly batched and mixed
thoroughly. Maximum volume output and maximum pressure on the concrete cannot be achieved
simultaneously from most concrete pumps because this combination requires too much power.
In 3D printing technique, pump is the most important part in the system for the material to
be able delivered throughout the system to produce a product. There is a number of pump type exist
that can be used as material transportation but regardly not all type of pump can be used to
transport all type of material and printing technique. Therefore, to select a suitable type of pump to
be used in printing system it is important to define the individual requirements of the system and
characterize the properties and the structure of each pump. Moreover, it is also necessary to identify
their advantage and drawbacks for transporting the material. On the other hand, selection of pump
is based on the type of industries and product they make. So, in concrete printing the character of
pump that need to be consider is the pump that can delivered material in high pressure condition
and extruding the material without air bubbles. On the other hand, the pump to be used has to be
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able to handle the specified concrete mix, and account for several aspects such as the maximum
aggregate size and the water cement ratio.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Due to previous preliminary experiment at Unimap using geopolymer material, can be seen that the
concrete slurry was not received proper pressure from the pump that being made before this. So,
there is limitation on concrete viscosity that can only be used to ensure the pump able to force the
concrete slurry and deliver the material throughout the system until it reach the nozzle tip.
Moreover, the size of spiral for archimedes screw that being used as the material driver are too
small and not fit with extruder body. Thus, that condition allow the material to have high back
pressure effect due to the gap exist in between the archimedes screw and body extruder.
SCOPE
In this research study, the following scope of works is required in order to achieve the outlined
objectives. The scope is stated as below:
- Design new extruder to replace previous extruder by scalling up to 50 mm in diameter.
- Fabricate the new extruder using stainless steel grade 203 by replacing previous PVC
extruder.
OBJECTIVES
This study embarks on the following objectives:
- To replace the previous extruder with new extruder by changing the size and material to
produce more pressure and to withstand the pump system for concrete printing.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Pump are used to transport material either liquid or gas. Liquids differ in chemical composition and
physical properties, so that they have different demands for pumping and operational conditions.
Because of these widely varying operational requirements, there is a large number of different
pump design available [1]. For concrete material, there is several type of pump that is suitable to be
used and give high pressure to deliver the concrete material such as piston pumps, peristaltic pump,
Mobile boom pump, trailer pump, and pneumatic placers.
i. Piston pump
ii. Mobile boom pump
iii. Trailer pump
iv. Pneumatic pump
However, all the pump above are not suitable to be used for research purpose in 3D concrete
printing due to the size is too big. So, as an alterbative way small screw type of pump is used to be
attached with the 3D printing machine. An example of the screw pump which mostly being used
for research purpose is progressive cavity pumps and archimedes screw pump, diaphragm pump,
peristaltic pumps.
i. Progressive cavity pump
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Progressive cavity pump or eccentric screw pumps and only have one rotor part. Rotor
works within a flexible rubber stator which has double internal helices. The difference
in pitch forms sealed cavities between the rotor and the stator cause an axial flow of the
material. Progressive cavity pumps are used for practically all types of liquids from
very fluid to highly viscous. The main advantage of these pumps is the possibility of
pumping suspensions with abrasive particles but the disadvantages is the possibility of
damage to the stator part in the case of using too highly concentrated suspension [2].

Figure 1: Progressive cavity pumps [2].

ii. Diaphragm pumps

Piston pumps have stuffing boxes which are potential areas of leakage. This leakage
can be avoided by separating the pumpe liquid from the pump workspace. In
diaphragm pump, separation of the individual spaces is provided by a membrane and
the movement of the piston is transmitted directly to this membrane. Diaphragm pumps
are used specifically for viscous liquids. Main disadvantage of these pumps is
discontinuous flow of pumped material [3].

Figure 2: Diapharagm pump [3]

iii. Peristaltic pumps
Peristaltic pumps transport material by mechanically squeezing the space enclosed by
the flexible tube. The pump works on the principle of rotating rollers or cams acting
directly upon the tube containing the pumped material. Peristaltic pumps are used for
all types of liquids and also suspensions with abrasive particles. Main advantage is that
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the pumped medium is completely enclosed with no possibility of leakage except in

the case of a tube failure. Another advantage is the continuous pumping of the material
and also a low cost of the equipment [4].

Figure 3: Peristaltic pump [4]

iv. Archimedes screw pump
The archimedean screw pumps are well-known for their excellent qualities such as the
simple, rugged design and high efficiency. Normally archimedes screw pump is used in
turbine for power generation plant and conveyor. There are two types of Archimedes
screw pumps. If the screw is enclosed in a pipe, it’s an enclosed screw pump. With an
open screw pump, the screw sits in a concrete trough and is open to the environment.
Enclosed screw pumps come in a choice of Type C or Type S. Type C has the screw
sitting within a tube that rotates. As a result, the Type C pump can sit at an angle of up
to 45 degrees, which takes up less space. Type S must be at a 22 to 40 degree incline as
the tube is stationary. As in Figure 4 show the type C of archimedes screw which
fabricated for 3D printing concrete. Moreover, other advantages of archimedes screw is
higher efficiency, option for drop-in replacements of older equipment, and lower
installation costs.

Figure 4: Archimedes screw type C

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METHODOLOGY

Preliminary experiment

Identify the problem(Pressure from pump system is not sufficient to push

concrete slurry throughout the system)

Solution (Change the archimedes screw with bigger size and fabricate new
body extruder to suit the size of extruder screw with new material to keep the
lifetime the pump system more longer than previous pump).

Design new size and new shape body extruder

Material selection

Process of fabrication

Assembly and testing

End

Figure 1: The flowchart of replacing previous extruder with new extruder for pump concrete system

Previous experiment conducted at Universiti Malaysia Perlis (Unimap) by using geopolymer

concrete material can be seen that the 3D printing machine facing a problem during manual
pumping process. Where the pump do not have sufficient pressure to push the material out from the
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extruder. Thus, it effecting the flowability of the concrete slurry throughout the system which the
concrete need to be able flowing from the pump system to the hose until it reach to the nozzle tip.
As a solution the previous extruder is replaced with new extruder by considering the problem
such as the size of the archimedes screw that act as the extruder and the body extruder size which
need to be exactly same with the size of extruder screw for preventing high back pressure inside the
pump system which occured inside the old extruder. Figure 2 below show the previous pump
system that already being replaced with new pump sytem as in Figure 3 .

Figure 2 : Previous pump system Figure 3: New pump sytem

OUTCOMES: EXPECTED
Research progress expected:
1. Preliminary experiment will be conducted using material other than cement to see new pump
performance with same viscosity as concrete cement.
CONCLUSIONS (TO DATE)
1. New composition of concrete slurry need to be find to match with new pump system after
preliminary experiment is conducted.
2. Complete testing of concrete material will be made after fix concrete mixture is obtained.

*NOTE:
1. Please provide adequate information for a fair evaluation of your research progress thus far.
2. Save as PDF file before uploaded in e-LKP system