NSF Convergence Accelerator Track I: OpenMatFlo: A Platform for Designing, Producing, and Supplying Greener Inks for Additive Construction under Uncertainties

This convergence accelerator project is intended to address the issue of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission of the construction industry, where the concrete sector is a top source of global CO2 emissions. The burgeoning technology of additive construction, or three-dimensional construction printing (3DCP), might exacerbate the situation. Because concrete (inks) used in 3DCP consists of much more binders (mostly Portland cement) compared to conventional concrete, the increasing adoption of 3DCP is now speeding-up the consumption of cement in the construction sector.

The innovation in the 3DCP inks needs to be accelerated to change the situation - greener inks need to be designed, produced, and supplied to the market more quickly. The carbon embodiment and other aspects, including energy consumption, the supply chain efficiency, the broader economic and environmental impacts, are seldom considered holistically in the life cycle design of most general-purpose concrete, not to mention the 3DCP concrete.

The uncertainties associated with these aspects make it more challenging. Significant gaps exist between the material science, printer manufacturing, concrete producing, supply networks, governmental legislation and policies, and the 3DCP end users. Therefore, this convergence accelerator project will develop a novel framework, OpenMatFlo, for accelerating the convergence at the concrete industry and 3DCP nexus.

The research can have fundamental socioeconomic impact by contributing to the innovation of new materials for the 3DCP industry. While the project context is focused on the 3DCP sector, the new capabilities can be ported to other areas. The project can provide transformational insights, cutting-edge simulation and data accessibility toolkits for the 3DCP community, as well as STEM education and research opportunities for a diverse cohort of students, postdocs, and early-career scientists.

The society will benefit from the accelerated adoption of greener 3DCP, in terms of fighting against carbon emission and climate change. The platform will be scalable to the globe and extendable for other industries.

This project will bring together knowledge from mechanics and construction, material research and production, printer manufacturing, life cycle and environment management, uncertainty quantification, computer science and blockchain, disaster science and community resilience, and urban/social science to build a convergent platform for designing, producing, and supplying greener inks for 3DCP towards built environment sustainability. The researchers will employ an open and crowdsourcing paradigm for incentivizing community data-driven material innovation; a market-based strategy will be employed to promote the adoption of life cycle-aware and lower carbon solutions in the concrete and construction industry (with an emphasis on the 3DCP sector); a blockchain technology will be developed to enhance the transparency of the ecosystem under uncertainties; tools will be created for scenario- and performance-based project planning, accounting for socioeconomic benefits of communities under chronic/acute stressors of the natural and built environment.

Through rigorous data collection and analysis, the Phase 1 team will identify stakeholders in the nexus of 3DCP and co-design a holistic platform that facilitates its growth in a sustainable way, by data sharing and holistic tracking of carbon emissions and continuous material flow analysis.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.