Forbes published more information on the 3D printed reef produced by concrete 3D printer D-Shape, whom we met with earlier this year.
Why 3D print a reef when you can simply drop concrete blocks or sink redundant ships at the correct locations? The answer lies in the shape of the reef.
Evidently artificial reefs function much better when the shape approaches “natural design”, because the more complex shapes encourage diversity of the reef ecology.
However, such complex shapes cannot easily be produced in concrete using conventional manufacturing approaches. Enter D-Shape, who provide a large-scale concrete 3D printer. The D-Shape device created numerous reef shapes that were submerged last fall in the Arabian Sea.
Does it really work? It appears they’re still studying the effects, but at least the artificial reef looks more realistic.
Via Forbes
