China ‘3D printed’ a 180m high hydroelectric dam on the Yellow River

According to South China Morning Post 8th day.5, hydropower plants Duong Khuc 180m high will be built “layer by layer” using “additive manufacturing” technology as in 3D printing. All excavators, trucks, bulldozers, pavers and rollers at the construction site are controlled by artificial intelligence (AI) and do not require human operation.

In an article published in the journal Study newspaper Tsinghua University (Natural Science edition), Scientist leading the project Liu Tianyun said the construction dams and 3D printing is “in essence identical”.

Construction site of Duong Khuc hydropower plant Xinhua News Agency

After years of development and experimentation, 3D printing for large infrastructure is now available for mass application and will “free people from heavy, repetitive and dangerous jobs”, According to Mr. Liu.

The article said that AI will be used to “cut” the dam model on the computer into several layers and then control the robot to carry out the construction of each layer at the construction site. Driverless excavators will be able to identify and load materials from the dump into automated trucks, some of them electric.

Following an optimized route calculated by the central AI, the trucks will deliver the right materials to the right location, at the right time, positioned by bulldozers and robotic pavers, and turn into a layer. of the dam structure. The automatic rollers will press this layer until it is tight and firm.

Since 10 years ago, Mr. Liu and his colleagues came up with the idea of ​​​​”printing” large-scale construction projects. They argue that an entire construction site can be turned into a giant printer, with a large number of automated machines working continuously together independently.

3D printing technology was originally developed to make it possible to make products from precious materials with less waste. This technology – also known as “additive manufacturing” – produces less waste than cutting and grinding.

Since then, a number of architects have begun to apply the technology to buildings, although projects so far have been small. The first office building born from 3D printing technology is the headquarters of the Dubai Future Fund, only 6 meters high.

Chinese civil engineers are no strangers to AI, which is used in the construction of the second largest dam world Bach Hac Than in just 4 years. But so far, AI has mainly played a secondary role in projects.

Duong Khuc hydropower plant was started at the end of last year in Thanh Hai province. When completed in 2024, the Yang Qu dam will annually transfer nearly 5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from the upper Yellow River to Henan province in central China. The electricity will pass through a 1,500 km long high voltage line system built specifically for the transmission of green energy.