3D printed composite slab: design concept and optimization

This thesis explores the structural optimization of steel deck geometries intended for composite slab systems produced with additive manufacturing. While the broader research topic focuses on composite slabs, this study specifically addresses the steel component, which plays a critical role in carrying tensile forces and providing formwork in traditional and digitally fabricated systems. The design approach is based on aligning structural ribs with internal stress trajectories, inspired by Nervi's theory, and realized through parametric modeling in Grasshopper. A series of optimized slab configurations—featuring 2, 3, and 4 ribs—were developed and compared to a corrugated conventional metal deck. Initial evaluations were carried out using Karamba3D, followed by final validation in Abaqus under consistent loading and boundary conditions. The findings demonstrate significant improvements in structural performance, with reductions of over 70\% in deformation and more than 50\% in stress for optimized geometries. Although the current work focuses exclusively on the steel part, it establishes a solid foundation for future studies that will integrate concrete and composite action into the analysis. The results contribute to the development of more efficient, sustainable, and digitally fabricated slab systems.