By Ashwini Sakharkar 20 Sep, 2024
Collected at: https://www.techexplorist.com/engineers-3d-print-strong-multilayered-glass-bricks-building-structures/90052/
What if we could revolutionize the construction industry by creating buildings that can be easily disassembled and reassembled, just like LEGO bricks? Imagine a sustainable cycle where building materials are reused and repurposed, significantly reducing the environmental impact of construction.
Inspired by the concept of circular construction, MIT engineers are pioneering a new frontier in eco-friendly building materials. They are developing reconfigurable masonry using 3D-printed, recycled glass. These innovative glass bricks, shaped like figure eights and designed to interlock similar to LEGO bricks, have proven to be incredibly strong in mechanical testing, withstanding pressures comparable to concrete blocks.
The potential for 3D-printable glass masonry is immense. It could be reused multiple times, serving as recyclable bricks for building facades and internal walls. This breakthrough has the power to transform the construction industry and pave the way for a more sustainable future.
“Glass is a highly recyclable material,” says Kaitlyn Becker, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. “We’re taking glass and turning it into masonry that, at the end of a structure’s life, can be disassembled and reassembled into a new structure or can be stuck back into the printer and turned into a completely different shape. All this builds into our idea of a sustainable, circular building material.”
“Glass as a structural material kind of breaks people’s brains a little bit,” says Michael Stern, a former MIT graduate student and researcher in both MIT’s Media Lab and Lincoln Laboratory, who is also the founder and director of Evenline. “We’re showing this is an opportunity to push the limits of what’s been done in architecture.”
The new circular masonry design was inspired by MIT’s Glass Lab, where Becker and Stern, undergraduate students, first learned glassblowing. They aimed to create 3D-printable glass bricks that were as sturdy and stackable as traditional ones. Using the Glass 3D Printer 3 (G3DP3) and soda-lime glass, they printed prototype bricks with interlocking pegs and a removable material to prevent scratches. The bricks can be dismantled, recycled, and reshaped and were designed in a figure-eight shape.
“With the figure-eight shape, we can constrain the bricks while also assembling them into walls that have some curvature,” Massimino says.
The team printed glass bricks and tested their strength, finding that the strongest bricks could withstand pressures comparable to concrete blocks. These bricks were mostly made from printed glass with a separately manufactured interlocking feature.
Despite the challenges of working with glass, the team remains optimistic and aims to build larger, self-supporting glass structures to revolutionize the construction industry.
“We have more understanding of what the material’s limits are and how to scale,” Stern says. “We’re thinking of stepping stones to buildings and want to start with something like a pavilion — a temporary structure that humans can interact with and that you could then reconfigure into a second design. And you could imagine that these blocks could go through a lot of lives.”
Journal reference:
- Massimino, D., Townsend, E., Folinus, C. et al. Additive manufacturing of interlocking glass masonry units. Glass Structures & Engineering, 2024. DOI: 10.1007/s40940-024-00279-8
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