On Monday, October 1st, SOM Consulting Partner Philip Enquist, Associate Director Andrew Obendorf, and senior structural engineer Benton Johnson participated in the research symposium, “Governor’s Chair Large-Scale Additive Manufacturing in Design.” The symposium centered on a discussion of research and innovations within large-scale 3D-printing and additive manufacturing.
Enquist, Obendorf, and Johnson were joined by speakers from the University of Tennessee (UT) College of Architecture and Design, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, LM Industries, Branch Technology, and Berkeley College of Environmental Design. The event was sponsored by the University of Tennessee Governor’s Chair for Energy + Urbanism and the UT Institute for Smart Structures.
Enquist, Obendorf, and Johnson discussed the Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy demonstration project (AMIE 1.0) and SOM’s recent innovations in 3D-printed concrete structures for the Automated Construction of Expeditionary Structures (ACES). The AMIE 1.0 demonstration project is a research and design collaboration of SOM, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the University of Tennessee (UT)?. The project reveals how 3D-printing can allow for complex, organic geometries that are optimized to reduce localized stress and mitigate turbulent exterior airflow. Housed within the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), ACES is developing a technology capable of 3D-printing custom-designed expeditionary structures on demand, in the field, using concrete sourced from local materials.