Application of Internet of Things (IoT) in Seismic Performance Evaluation of 3D Printed Structure

Conventional construction of structures consumes more time and effort but still lacks quality depending on the workmanship and generates large amounts of construction cost due to formwork. The technology of 3D printing of concrete structures has eliminated the estimated cost of formwork and scaffolding. The speed of construction has also increased several times. This is of great use in disaster shelter construction which takes about 2–3 h and may have a lifespan of up to 6 years. In the recent past, 3D printed buildings have been tested only for inertial forces originated from building loads itself. The performance of a 3D printed scaled-down building model subjected to seismic loads needs to be understood. The present study discusses about the analysis and testing of a 3D printed scaled-down model subjected to earthquake loads using the Shake Table Study. A five-storey prototype building has been scaled down using similitude laws to a scale of 1:30 and 3D printed using Polylactic Acid (PLA) material. The concept of IoT (Internet of Things) has been used in the form of ADXL335 accelerometer, NodeMCU, and Arduino UNO to measure acceleration values at different levels of the model subjected to 2001 Bhuj Earthquake loads. The recorded values are, in turn, transferred to a public cloud (ThingSpeak) which makes data handling simpler. The results obtained for the scaled model are extrapolated to comprehend the response of the prototype model in terms of displacement and acceleration. Results of the study indicate that displacement of the top storey is more compared to lower floors both in the scaled and prototype model. Furthermore, the amplification of acceleration values is observed. Hence, the concept of IoT can be effectively used in model studies to understand the real-time behaviour of 3D printed structures.