Assessment Framework for Additive Manufacturing in the AEC Industry
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 148, Issue 5
Abstract
Additive manufacturing (AM), popularly known as three-dimensional (3D) printing, is starting to coexist with conventional manufacturing (CM) in architecture-engineering-construction (AEC) industry. However, AEC practitioners do not have validated systematic means to rapidly and consistently assess AM for the production of building components through transparent metrics such as cost and environmental impact. We developed a semiautomated assessment framework to rapidly and consistently evaluate the applicability (A), schedule (S), environmental impact (E), and cost (C) of AM compared with CM to produce building components. The validation of the framework showed that it reduced the effort required for the ASEC analyses, specifically the time for the assessment by 97%, and provided consistent A, S, and C results in comparison with the assessment without the framework. The consistency of the E results was improved fourfold. An uncertainty source analysis of the E results showed the reduction of inconsistencies by 68% in the formalized assessment and proposed mitigations. Future work includes framework’s further automation such as development of direct links to design and life cycle assessment (LCA) tools.
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Data Availability Statement
Some data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Some data used during the study are proprietary and may only be provided with restrictions (Input data for the case studies).
Acknowledgments
This research was conducted with the support of Stanford University, Center of Integrated Facility Engineering (CIFE) at Stanford, and with the support and in collaboration with the Permasteelisa’s R&D Group.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 148 • Issue 5 • May 2022
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 11, 2021
Accepted: Jan 12, 2022
Published online: Feb 26, 2022
Published in print: May 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Jul 26, 2022
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