Initial investigations into the thermal response of the first metal 3D printed bridge

3D printing, more formally called additive manufacturing, has the potential to revolutionise the construction sector through improved structural efficiency, reduced material use and greater architectural freedom. The first metal 3D printed structure, the MX3D Bridge, has been designed, non-destructively tested and instrumented with an extensive structural health monitoring network. This network will measure the structural behaviour of the bridge, and act as a 'living laboratory', in its final location in the centre of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Initial investigations into the thermal response of the bridge are presented, based on a one-month period of data collected during a nine-month sensor installation and commissioning programme at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. The regression-based thermal response prediction methodology is employed to predict the structural response from distributed temperature measurements. Although only a two-week input data period is used for the model training, the developed regression models are capable of generating accurate response predictions.