Topic:
The Advanced Construction Laboratory, or ACL, located within the Maximum Building Energy Efficiency Research facility, leads U.S. research and development efforts focused on modernizing the construction industry. As part of the Advanced Building Construction Initiative, headed by DOE’s Building Technologies Office, the laboratory is instrumental to increasing the availability of affordable energy-efficient housing and the decarbonization of buildings.
By combining the expertise of two Department of Energy national user facilities – the Building Technologies Research and Integration Center and the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility -researchers will utilize ACL capabilities to:
- Increase scientific innovation that will enable affordability of high-performance, low-carbon building technologies for new construction and retrofits
- Preserve and strengthen construction jobs throughout the nation
- De-risk new technologies to expedite demonstration and deployment
- Serve as a hub for advanced construction research and development
Research areas include:
- Modernizing existing manufacturing facilities
- Simultaneously developing low-carbon materials and machine-assisted assembly for optimized construction solutions
- Developing offsite and onsite digital manufacturing methods
- Developing non-destructive and non-disruptive diagnostic tools
Ongoing projects:
- Preinstalled sealant for prefab components
- Modular overclad composite panels for envelope retrofits
- Refraction-based air leak detector
- Advanced manufacturing for building envelope retrofits
- Autonomous self-healing sealant
- High filler, low water concrete that decreases cement content by at least 35%
- Robotically and autonomously installed spray foam
- Non-destructive moisture detector
- Machine learning-assisted development and integration of new construction materials