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The role of microfibrillated cellulose fibres to tune the rheological behaviour of fibre-cementitious and fibre-clay mixture for 3D printing application

Project description

New 3D-printed construction materials based on cellulose

Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, offers a sustainable, efficient and affordable option for the construction industry. Material extrusion is an additive manufacturing technique that involves heating the material in the form of plastic filament and depositing it onto the build platform layer by layer. The rheological (flow) behaviour of cement and clay, materials that are commonly used in construction, largely affects the extrusion process. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the CNF project aims to elucidate how cellulose nanofibres, which are used as additives, affect the rheological properties (flow behaviour) of cement and clay.

Objective

The use of sustainable material in the construction sector is one of the solutions to reduce its environmental impact. In parallel, this sector is facing a technical revolution with 3D printing. The rheological behavior of cement/clay materials and its time evolution are significant in an extrusion and 3D printing process to ensure the layer-by-layer stability. Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve the adequacy between this process and the material (cement or clay) requirements. This proposal aims at elucidating the role of cellulose nanofiber or microfibrillated cellulose (CNF) on the complex rheological and mechanical properties of CNF-cement and CNF-clay for the further 3D printing process. The addition of CNF will affect the fresh-state and hardened state properties (durability, mechanical strength) resulting in a change of flow behavior of the composite, which is significant to tune the 3D printing process (so-called printability index). The processing of CNF gel can be mostly done in very low solid contents, where the high amount of water is one of the barriers to extrude the CNF gel with polymers, while the cement/clay materials are on the opposite side of the polymers extrusion process, as 25-50 wt% water is needed to prepare the slurry. If this content is a limiting factor in the extrusion process, it could be taken as an advantage in the preparation of the slurry. To go further, this project will explore the novel idea of UV-induced functions of CNF gel to activate the surface of the in-print layer and speeds up the hardening time due to entanglement of UV treated CNF of the mixture after having exposed by UV light. Taking advantage of the complementary expertise of the fellow and three world-leading institutions, the proposed research aim at unleashing the potential of CNF-gel as a raw material in the construction sector. This project will provide the candidate with a unique scientific repertoire and will be a crucial step in his future career.

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITE DE BRETAGNE SUD
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 257 619,84
Address
RUE ARMAND GUILLEMOT 27
56100 Lorient
France

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Region
Bretagne Bretagne Morbihan
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 257 619,84

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