World’s first 3D-printed steel footbridge unveiled by Queen Máxima in Amsterdam
The world’s first 3D-printed steel structure, a ‘living laboratory’ bridge co-developed by Imperial, has been unveiled by Queen Máxima in Amsterdam.
The bridge, which is over four years in the making and is led by Dutch company MX3D, will be a ‘living laboratory’ in Amsterdam’s city centre. It was unveiled in July 2021 by Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.
Using its vast network of installed sensors, Imperial College London researchers will measure, monitor and analyse the performance of the novel 12-metre-long structure as it handles pedestrian traffic.
The data collected will enable researchers and engineers to measure the bridge’s ‘health’ in real time, monitor how it changes over its lifespan and understand how the public interacts with 3D-printed infrastructure.
The data from the sensors will be put into a ‘digital twin’ of the bridge – a computerised version which will imitate the physical bridge with growing accuracy in real time as sensor data come in. The performance and behaviour of the physical bridge will be tested against the twin, which will help answer questions about the long-term behaviour of 3D-printed steel, as well as its use in real world settings and in future novel construction projects.
