Stress-Strain State Analysis of a Shallow Spherical Shell Fabricated Using 3DCP
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26906/znp.2025.65.4210Keywords:
3D-printed shell, experimental study, stress–strain state, 3D concrete printing, load-bearing capacityAbstract
Experimental and numerical investigations of the stress–strain behavior and load-bearing capacity of a shallow spherical concrete shell fabricated using extrusion-based 3D printing are presented. The shell with a plan dimension of 2.2 × 2.2 m was subjected to quasi-uniform stepwise loading using sandbags. The maximum applied distributed load reached 13.74 kN/m², and the measured vertical deflections did not exceed 0.235 mm, indicating high structural stiffness. A three-dimensional nonlinear finite element model was developed in LS-DYNA to simulate the experimental behavior and to predict the ultimate load-bearing capacity, since it was not reached experimentally. It was found that failure of the 3D-printed shell occurs under a uniformly distributed load of 228.4 kN/m², which corresponds to a total load of 67.8 t. The numerical results showed good agreement with the experimental data, with discrepancies within 17%. The proposed experimental–numerical approach confirms the structural efficiency and feasibility of 3D-printed concrete shells for load-bearing applications.
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