Cornell College researchers are growing expertise to 3D print concrete underwater for maritime building and infrastructure restore. The interdisciplinary crew, led by assistant professor Sriramya Nair, acquired a $1.4 million grant from DARPA in Could 2025 to advance the expertise inside a one-year timeframe.
The challenge addresses a number of technical challenges, together with stopping washout the place cement particles fail to bind throughout underwater deposition. DARPA requires the concrete to consist primarily of seafloor sediment with minimal cement content material to scale back transportation logistics. “No person is doing this proper now,” Nair mentioned. “No person takes seafloor sediment and prints with it.”
The analysis crew has been conducting take a look at prints in laboratory water tanks utilizing a 6,000-pound industrial robotic. They efficiently demonstrated progress towards DARPA’s excessive sediment content material targets throughout a September go to by company officers. The crew contains specialists from a number of universities engaged on materials design and fabrication processes.
Since underwater monitoring presents visibility challenges resulting from sediment turbidity, researchers are growing sensor techniques to trace printing high quality in actual time. The challenge will culminate in a March demonstration the place a number of competing groups will 3D print arches underwater. Cornell’s crew is one in all six teams competing to satisfy DARPA’s benchmarks for the underwater concrete printing problem.
Supply: information.cornell.edu
