3D printing will revolutionize the way we build.

Freek Bos is an Assistant Professor in the Department of the Built Environment, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). His research is in the area on 3D Concrete Printing (3DCP). Freek’s key interests include structural behavior of printed concrete during printing, structural behavior of printed concrete after printing in relation to print parameters, achieving structural ductility in printed concrete, and additive manufacturing processes for concrete in general.

In the course of Freek’s research, two reinforcement concepts have been developed that appear very promising:

• on-line addition of reinforcement cable and
• 3D printable Strain-Hardening Cementitious Composites (SHCCs; collaboration with the TU Delft).

His group intends to pursue further research on both developments. These findings can be used to make 3D concrete printed buildings structurally safe. Therefore, they constitute an important step in the development and applicability of the technology.

Freek graduated in Architecture and in Building Technology at the Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology. He holds a PhD in structural glass (obtained in 2009, one of the first in the Netherlands), and further specialized in that area through a post-doc position at Ghent University in Belgium and as glass engineering specialist at Witteveen+Bos consulting engineers. He remains active in the field of structural glass as co-founder and co-chairman of the international conference series Challenging Glass. His key findings in the field of glass were the development of a structural safety assessment method for objective comparison of structural glass member designs, and relating strain energy release to structural safety in glass members.

He started as Assistant Professor at TU/e in 2015.