Project Details
Projekt
Tolerance-free series production of high-performance concrete modules through transient-interactive coupling of design and production
Subject Area
Structural Engineering, Building Informatics and Construction Operation
Production Systems, Operations Management, Quality Management and Factory Planning
Production Systems, Operations Management, Quality Management and Factory Planning
Term
since 2019
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 423942391
An interactive concept for design and flow production of beam-like concrete structures made of UHPC modules is developed. The aim is to overcome the factual and temporal separation of design and production through coupling, that intelligently and interactively compensates for imprecisions in geometry, time, process and material and to integrate end-to-end quality assurance. In this way, efficient and low-waste modular construction in flow production is granted. Imprecisions in the process are compensated for by permutations in the design, and vice versa. A “too long” module - with fixed rules just scrap exceeding the tolerance limits - can be compensated for by a “too short” one in the module structure. And thus both can still be used. Mutual compensation happens stochastically and transiently via the production process through interactive permutations in quasi real-time. At the same time, this newfound flexibility is deliberately used to increase the efficiency of production. Controllable interaction is crated that accumulates robustness holistically over structure, production process and time (transient-interactive concept). The efficiency of the construction method is sustainably improved.In the first funding period, the focus was set on the impact of shrinkage on structural dimensions induced by heat treatments of different duration and selective assembly in case of stochastic deviations of geometry. This was investigated on Y-modules of different classes and associated specifically dimensioned struts which form statically determined honeycomb-like structures. Based on from batch to batch adjusted heat treatment durations and true dimensions a control system was developed that limits shrinkage and yields geometrically optimal structures.In the second funding period, multiply statically indeterminate systems of modules will be considered. Additionally, the assembly of modules on-site will be integrated and then grants predictive interaction of design and production. To the outside, the modules form walls with four nodes while internally they are dissolved into topologically optimal struts according to the loading. This yields a variable, scalable modular system. Interaction bases on coupled heuristics of module placement on-site and specifications for production. On purpose, single or multiple construction sites are considered simultaneously. The interaction proceeds in analogy to the module-by-module construction progress and integrates short-term creeping dependent on the heat treatment and softening behavior due to cracking. The research approach aims on lot-free multi-facetted manufacturing employing reinforcement learning for interactive production and simultaneous process control. The performance will be validated on holistic virtual and physically real demonstrators true to scale.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
