{"id":10459,"date":"2022-03-04T07:14:43","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T07:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1381746"},"modified":"2022-03-04T07:14:43","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T07:14:43","slug":"future-cities-could-be-3d-printed-and-greener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=10459","title":{"rendered":"Future cities could be 3D printed \u2014 and greener"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

3D printed concrete may lead to a shift in architecture and construction. Because it can be used to produce new shapes and forms that current technologies struggle with, it may change the centuries-old processes and procedures that are still used to construct buildings, resulting in lower costs and saved time.<\/p>\n

However, concrete has a significant environmental impact<\/a>. Vast quantities of natural sand are currently used to meet the world\u2019s insatiable appetite for concrete, at great cost to the environment. In general, the construction industry struggles with sustainability. It creates around 35% of all <\/span>landfill waste globally<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our <\/span>new research<\/a> <\/span>suggests a way to curb this impact. We have trialed using recycled glass as a component of concrete for 3D printing.<\/p>\n

Concrete is made of a mix of cement, water, and aggregates such as sand. We trialed replacing up to 100% of the aggregate in the mix with glass. Simply put, glass is produced from sand, is easy to recycle, and can be used to make concrete without any complex processing.<\/p>\n

Demand from the construction industry could also help ensure glass is recycled. In 2018 in the US only a quarter of glass was recycled, with more than half <\/span>going to landfill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Building better<\/h2>\n

We used brown soda-lime beverage glass obtained from a local recycling company. The glass bottles were first crushed using a crushing machine and then the crushed pieces were washed, dried, milled, and sieved. The resulting particles were smaller than a millimeter square.<\/p>\n

The crushed glass was then used to make concrete in the same way that sand would be. We used this concrete to 3D print wall elements and prefabricated building blocks that could be fitted together to make a whole building.<\/p>\n

\"printing
<\/i><\/a>A building envelope is prefabricated using the 3D printing process. Image: Mehdi Chougan, Author<\/figcaption>