Construction and Building Materials: Shaodan Hou, Zhenhua Duan, Jianzhuang Xiao, Jun Ye
Construction and Building Materials: Shaodan Hou, Zhenhua Duan, Jianzhuang Xiao, Jun Ye
Construction and Building Materials: Shaodan Hou, Zhenhua Duan, Jianzhuang Xiao, Jun Ye
Review
h i g h l i g h t s
The performance requirements, test methods and mix design of 3DPC are reviewed.
The printability and interlayer bond are the keys to study the properties of 3DPC.
More accurate test methods and testing standard should be developed.
Coarse aggregate and recycled materials need to be considered in the mix design of 3DPC.
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: As one of the ways contributing to the progress of the industrialization of the construction industry, 3D
Received 1 July 2020 printed concrete (3DPC) has attracted more and more attention in recent years. The utilization of 3DPC
Received in revised form 15 November 2020 can accelerate the construction speed, save the labor and raw materials, as well as improve the design
Accepted 16 November 2020
freedom of construction without formworks. However, one of the most significant challenges for the
Available online xxxx
application of 3DPC is the printing materials. These is a significant difference in the mixtures and perfor-
mance between 3DPC and normal concrete. In order to provide an intensive reference for future studies
Keywords:
to satisfy the performance requirements of 3DPC structures, this study firstly reviews the performance
3D printed concrete
Printability
requirements of 3DPC, including the printability, fresh and hardened mechanical properties, and durabil-
Rheology ity. Based on this, the specialized test methods for 3DPC are reviewed for the effective quality evaluation
Green strength of 3DPC. The last part presents a review of mix design from the point of view of different materials and
Testing measurements mix design approaches. The results show that 3DPC needs to meet the printability that it has higher
Mix design requirements for rheology, hydration, and green strength than normal concrete. The interlayer bond is
the key to study the anisotropic strength and durability degradation. More accurate test methods and
testing standards should be developed. Besides, coarse aggregates and recycled materials need to be con-
sidered in the mix design of 3DPC.
Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
2. Performance requirements of 3DPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
2.1. Printability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
2.1.1. Extrudability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
2.1.2. Buildability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
2.1.3. Relationship between printability and rheology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
2.2. Mechanical properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
2.2.1. Mechanical properties of fresh 3DPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 00
⇑ Corresponding author at: Department of Structural Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, PR China.
E-mail address: jzx@tongji.edu.cn (J. Xiao).
1
Shaodan Hou and Zhenhua Duan contributed equally.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.121745
0950-0618/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article as: S. Hou, Z. Duan, J. Xiao et al., A review of 3D printed concrete: Performance requirements, testing measurements and mix design,
Construction and Building Materials, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.121745
S. Hou, Z. Duan, J. Xiao et al. Construction and Building Materials xxx (xxxx) xxx
2
S. Hou, Z. Duan, J. Xiao et al. Construction and Building Materials xxx (xxxx) xxx
Fig. 2. The performance of 3DPC during the printing and hardened process.
(a) screw extruder (b) ram extruder [39] (c) developed ram extruder [28]
Fig. 3. Working principle of different extruders.
2.1.1. Extrudability to control the deformation [39]. The shear stress caused by gravity
After mixing and delivery/pumping, the cementitious materials must be lower than the yield stress of cementitious materials to
is fed into the hopper of extruder, from which the it is firstly maintain its shape. The single-layer deformation of printed mate-
pushed to the die and exit part and then extruded from the nozzle. rials immediately after extrusion can be predicted by the devel-
Extrudability is defined as the ability to transport the fresh con- oped model in literature [40,41], which is helpful for the analysis
crete to a nozzle in the hopper of the extruder as a continuous fil- of buildability.
ament [26]. At present, screw extrusion and ram extrusion are the On the other hand, as the layers increase in the process of con-
two most commonly used extrusion methods of 3DPC, their crete printing, 3DPC elements are at a risk of collapse. Buildability,
detailed comparison on the properties, requirements for flowable in this circumstance, also represents the ability of 3DPC elements
cementitious materials and application are shown in Table 1, and to resist collapse stably at a specific height. According to the previ-
the working principle of the corresponding extruders is listed in ous studies on the buildability of multi-layers 3DPC component,
Fig. 3. It is worth noting that the rheological behavior of cementi- there are three failure modes for the layer-by-layer made compo-
tious materials has changed in the hopper of screw extruder nent [39], as shown in Fig. 4a. Firstly, the stress from the upper lay-
(Fig. 3a) due to the existence of rotational screw, and the thixo- ers increases as the layer number grows. There is a compressive
tropy of cementitious materials itself. In terms of ram extrusion failure risk in the bottom layer when the stress is higher than
(Fig. 3b), the cementitious materials are pushed by a ram inside the yield stress. This failure mode depends on the comparison of
the extruder barrel, with the shape of the extruded materials same the development of yield stress and the increase of stress as shown
to that of the extruder barrel. Compared with screw extrusion, the in Eq. (1) [42,43,45,46] while Fig. 4b shows the process of this fail-
materials suitable for ram extrusion needs to have smaller fluidity ure mode. A lower bound analytical model was proposed to evalu-
and hardness. Besides, for traditional ram extrusion, a disadvan- ate the buildability for plastic yielding of the bottom critical layer
tage that may hinder the industrial application of 3DPC is that considering the stress redistribution of the printed layers in the
cementitious materials can not be fed into the extruder continu- printing process by Kruger et al. [47]. Secondly, the geometrical
ously. Given this problem, Ji et al. [27] developed a double- non-conformity that occurs in the printing process will lead to
assisted print head (Fig. 3c), which can continuously extrude the the collapse of the printing component. This is because of the accu-
materials. Ram extrusion is generally used in the lab to evaluate mulation of layer deformation, which is related to the evolution of
the rheological properties and extrudability of materials [28–30], elastic shear modulus and the rising speed of layers. Rigid materi-
which will be discussed in Section 2.1.3. als with a fast growth of elastic modulus evolution are recom-
During the extrusion process, 3DPC is required to be homoge- mended for 3DPC. Thirdly, the bulking is dominant of failure
neous and extruded continuously without any blockage, cracking when the printing component is a slender structure. It can be
and segregation [31]. Perrot et al. [32] conducted a review on the expected that compressive failure occurs when the number of lay-
flow characteristics and rheological properties of extruded ers is small while the bulking failure occurs when the number of
cement-based materials. They indicated that the pressing force to layers increases. Based on the analysis, the critical height HT
extrude materials is mainly composed of the forming force of the between the two failure-criteria is shown in Eq. (2) [39]. In sum-
elongational flow and wall friction force of plug flow. The forming mary, the behavior of materials before the final setting needs to
force is related to the rheological properties of elongational flow in be studied and developed to enhance the buildability of 3DPC. Fur-
the shaping zone, which can be calculated based on the Benbow thermore, the optimization of the printing system must be carried
and Bridgwater formula [33–35]. The wall friction force, occurred out since the properties of the printing process, such as open time
between materials and barrel surface, is influenced by the tribolog- [14], layer cycle time [6], etc., play an important role in the
ical behaviors of plug flow [29]. However, It is worth noting that buildability.
the water drainage of 3DPC caused by extrusion will hinder its pffiffiffi
extrusion flow when it behaves inhomogeneous [36,37]. sðtÞ > qgH 3 ð1Þ
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2.1.2. Buildability 1þm
HT ¼ 2d pffiffiffi ð2Þ
Buildability is used to evaluate the ability of fresh 3DPC to bear 3 3cc
its own weight, as well as the load of concrete from above layers,
without collapse during printing. On the one hand, the 3DPC must where s is static yield stress, q is the density of 3DPC, H is the height
be able to maintain its shape deformation within the controlled of printing element, which depends on the rising speed and time,
range after extrusion. The layer thickness is generally set to be further, the rising speed is related to the speed of nozzle (H), the
small (varied from 1 mm to 10 cm) to limit the initial gravity stress contour length scale (s) and thickness of layers (h0) [39], d is the
4
S. Hou, Z. Duan, J. Xiao et al. Construction and Building Materials xxx (xxxx) xxx
width of the layer, m is the Poisson coefficient, cc is the critical shear The extruded layer is basically at rest, and becomes stronger
strain at flow onset. and more rigid with the layer by layer printing, which means that
the static yield stress and shear elastic modulus are increasing. The
static yield stress is the critical stress at a very low shear rate that
2.1.3. Relationship between printability and rheology the concrete begins to flow, and it is related to the thixotropic
From the above discussion, it is necessary to study the fresh behavior of fresh concrete. It determines the ability of the printed
properties of 3DPC to reveal its evolution mechanism and to fur- layer to maintain shape after extrusion as shown in Eq. (1). When
ther optimize its printability. Rheology, which can describe the concrete is at rest below the static yield stress, it exhibits an elastic
evolution of viscosity, plasticity and elasticity of materials under behavior with the shear elastic modulus: G = sc/cc, where sc is the
shear stress, is applied in fresh concrete because cementitious static yield stress and cc is the critical shear strain [39]. The devel-
materials behave as visco-plastic materials and exhibit non- opment of fresh 3DPC is mostly related to the increase of static
Newtonian behavior [48]. yield stress and shear elastic modulus with time at rest, which
In the process of screw extrusion, the cement-based material is can be attributed to the flocculation and hydration of binders.
sheared in the barrel. The material flows when the shear stress is The parameter ‘‘structuration rate” was developed to predict the
higher than the corresponding dynamic yield stress. The rheologi- increase of static yield stress of cementitious material with time.
cal properties of materials have influenced the power of screw Roussel et al. [50,51] developed a linear model to predict the struc-
extrusion. For example, the larger screw power is required to turation rate by testing the static yield stress at different rest time.
maintain the same screw rotating speed for the materials with lar- It is worth noting that the structuration rate might no longer be
ger viscosity. Because the materials are sheared during the process constant and the relationship between static yield stress and time
of screw extrusion, the printable materials become more fluid at no longer be linear, because the 3DPC had more complex proper-
first, but then get stiffer with time. This can be due to the thixo- ties due to the addition of a higher amount of admixtures [52-56].
tropy properties of printable materials. The rheological properties Nowadays, the research on the cementitious materials used in
of printable materials after extrusion relate to the properties of 3DPC is still at an early stage with many challenges. There are
the screw, including the rotation, speed, shape, and the screw time. two important reasons for this. Firstly, the common test methods
Nerella et al. [21,49] showed that there was a non-linear relation- for fresh properties of normal concrete can not accurately capture
ship between flow rate and rotational velocity because of the slip- the properties of 3DPC. On the other hand, the newly proposed
page at the elastomeric stator surface. In terms of ram extrusion, evaluation methods are limited and lack of sufficient experimental
the flow of cementitious materials in the barrel is the same as that verification. At this circumstance, the rheology is a better choice
in pumping. A large part of the materials is un-sheared, and the for 3DPC with accurate results to describe the printability.
shear occurs in a narrow zone between barrel wall and cementi-
tious materials, called lubrication layer, at which the rheological 2.2. Mechanical properties
properties (yield stress and plastic viscosity) of paste with fine par-
ticles determine the flow behavior of the cementitious materials. Mechanical properties of 3DPC are also very important, since
The cementitious materials are forming from the barrel zone to they determine the practical application of 3DPC in construction
die zone, where the diameter of the barrel decreases, called the directly. Compared with the normal concrete, the evolution of
shaping zone. The forming force from the shaping zone is related mechanical properties before final setting, the weak interface bond
to the rheological properties (yield stress) of the cementitious between layers, and the anisotropic mechanical properties are
materials, as shown in Eq. (3) [29,33,34]. worth more attention.
pD2 D 2.2.1. Mechanical properties of fresh 3DPC
F pl ¼ ðr0 þ aV nBB Þln ð3Þ
2 d The development of mechanical properties of early age concrete
from the plastic and deforming state to hardened state is very
where Fpl is the forming force, r0 is the elongational yield stress, important for the 3D printing construction application. The early
pffiffiffi
r0 ¼ 3s0 , s0 is the yield stress of materials, a and nBB are fitting age mechanical properties have influenced the buildability, which
parameters, D and d are the diameter of the barrel and die zone, further affects the construction process of 3DPC. Besides, the hard-
respectively. ened properties are related to the fresh mechanical properties. It is
5
S. Hou, Z. Duan, J. Xiao et al. Construction and Building Materials xxx (xxxx) xxx
(a) Effect of printing time gap [71] (b) Effect of different drying conditions [40]
Fig. 7. Effect of printing time gap and surface moisture content on interface bond strength.
Table 2 The properties of 3DPC also play a role in the interface bond
The difference of strength of casted concrete and 3DPC with different loading strength. Roussel and Cussign [67] observed that the thixotropic
direction (data from [63,64,70,77,85–89]).
property of cementitious materials had a negative effect on the
Strength of Variation of strength of 3DPC interface bond strength, which was contradictory to the require-
3DPC from from different loading directions ment of printability. Viktor et al. [78] found that the bond strength
different
Standard Variable of 3DPC was related to the yield stress. The properties of 3DPC are
loading
deviation coefficient affected by the properties of raw materials and mix proportions. A
directions
compared detailed introduction will be discussed in Section 4. The bond
with casted strength was further influenced by the printing environment and
samples
curing condition, which affected the surface moisture of samples
Compressive strength 67.4%–114.6% 0.53–39.9 2.4%–70.8% and the activity of admixtures [79]. The high surface moisture con-
Flexural strength 54.5%–157.1% 0.31–5.03 3.8%–43.1% tent had a positive effect on the bond strength as shown in Fig. 7b
Tension strength 23.3%–112.2% 0.09–1.15 2.4%–11.9%
Elastic modulus / 1.1–1.2 18.6%–43.7%
[77,80].
A number of methodologies have been adopted to enhance the
Note: The strength for casted samples were regarded as 1. bond strength of 3DPC. Through adding a thin layer to glue the
interlayers with paste [81,82] or polymer [83], a great enhance-
ment of bond strength can be achieved. Zareyian et al. [84] devel-
oped the effective interlocking on interlayer by adjusting the print
printing process, including the interval time, the print head speed, nozzle opening geometry, showing an average increase of 26% on
and the print nozzle height (Fig. 6), have great effects on the the bond strength. Therefore, various factors, including optimizing
interface bond strength. As shown in Fig. 7a, the interface bond the printing process, properties of cementitious materials, and
strength generally decreases with an increase of the interval time environmental conditions, need to be taken into account in 3D con-
[26,70–72], since microstructure is denser with smaller voids and crete printing to enhance its bond strength.
pores inside with a decreased time gap [73,74]. Panda et al. [75]
developed the ‘‘time window” to evaluate the effect of interval
2.2.3. Influence of anisotropy on mechanical properties
time on the bond strength. The results showed that the effect
The anisotropy of mechanical properties refers to the mechani-
was slight when the interval time was within the time window,
cal properties of 3DPC from different directions, which depend on
otherwise, the effect was significant. Panda et al. [71,76] found that
inter-layer and inter-strip bonds [85]. The mechanical properties of
the low values of print head speed and the print nozzle standoff
3DPC are influenced strongly by the printing direction. Le et al. [70]
distance led to the increase of interface bond strength. While wolfs
showed the minimum compressive strength occurred when the
et al. [77] reported that there was no clear relation between nozzle
loading was parallel to the layers. Similar results of flexural
height and interface bond strength.
strength were also found [64,85,86]. Table 2 shows the strength
(a) The under-filling problem of 3DPC (b) Different printing paths for a printed
beam
Fig. 8. The impact of printing paths on 3DPC performance.
7
S. Hou, Z. Duan, J. Xiao et al. Construction and Building Materials xxx (xxxx) xxx
some other methods to comprehensively evaluate the printable ing the test measurement. Although the testing measurements
performance of 3DPC. based on the printing process have some disadvantages, they are
the most convenient methods with intuitive results at present.
Therefore, more research should be conducted in the future to
3.1.2. Newly developed testing measurements
develop accurate and robust testing measurements during the
The most intuitive test methods for printability are measuring
printing process.
the properties of components in the printing process as shown in
Nerella et al. [49] proposed an inline and quantitative
Fig. 10. The extrudability can be evaluated by the shape of the
method to characterize the extrudability of 3DPC with a new
printing specimens. The qualitative results of extrudability are
test device. The electric power consumption and extrudate flow
defined as ‘‘YES” with continuous extrusion without blockage or
rate were recorded at different rotational velocities of a pro-
fracture and ‘‘NO” with discontinued extrusion [26]. Besides, the
gressive cavity pump. An index of unit extrusion energy (UEE),
deformation in the width of specimens determines the quality of
defined as the energy consumed per extruded unit volume,
the extrusion. The closer the specimen size is to the print nozzle
was developed to evaluate the extrudability. The lower the
size, the better is the extrudability (as shown in Fig. 10a). The vari-
value of UEE, the higher the extrudability of 3DPC. For the cur-
ations of specimen shape and dimension, such as length, width,
rent testing measurements, an adequate amount of materials
number and shape of filaments [19,26,96,99], are attracting atten-
needs to be extracted from the printing system, which leads to
tion from different studies because there is no standard for this test
the waste of materials. Moreover, the tests are generally con-
method at present. Besides, this method is conducted by visual
ducted after printing that they are unable to evaluate the test
observation with less accuracy, which is greatly affected by human
results effectively due to the time-dependent properties of fresh
factors and cannot be accurately and quantitatively used in the
3DPC. A real-time test method [95] was proposed through
printing process.
mounting a strain gage recording apparatus and wattmeter on
In terms of the buildability, it was evaluated by the deformation
the screw to record the real-time energy consumption of screw
of a certain layer [18–20,99,100] or the maximum layer without
extruded motor. It can be used to evaluate the extrudability of
collapsing [26,95,98] in the printing process. Fig. 10b shows the
3DPC, and also to adjust the properties of 3DPC by adding
deformation test for buildability. Low deformation and high maxi-
admixtures during the printing process. Besides, the method
mum layers illustrate a better buildability. Similar problems also
can be used in a real scale application with real-time feedback
exist for extrudability where there is a measurement error in the
and adjustments of fresh performance of 3DPC, which has great
testing process. Besides, the testing results are affected by the layer
potential for application. In future research work, more atten-
cycle time, printing speed, shape and size of each layer and
tions should be paid to the development of 3D concrete printing
machine precision. Generally, long cycle time, low printing speed
systems including the real-time testing of printability, feedback
and high machine precision are beneficial to buildability. In terms
and adjusting. The evaluation parameters should not be only the
of the printable element shape, the filament element has the min-
energy consumption of the motor but also the rheological prop-
imum layer number compared with the rectangle or circle element
erties of fresh concrete for the comprehensive evaluation of the
when the material amount remains the same. The above-
printability of 3DPC.
mentioned influencing factors lead to the difficulty of standardiz-
9
S. Hou, Z. Duan, J. Xiao et al. Construction and Building Materials xxx (xxxx) xxx
(a) Test protocol for hysteresis loop (b) Test protocol for viscosity recovery test
Fig. 11. Different test protocols for rheological tests.
3.1.3. Rheology testing program test was carried out to obtain the static yield stress by the maxi-
According to the previous discussion, it can be concluded that mum value at a very low speed (usually in the range of 0.001–
the research on the cementitious materials used in 3DPC is still 0.1 s1). Then the structuration rate (Athix) was obtained by the
in its infancy with many challenges. This is because the traditional evolution of static yield stress with time in different models
parameters used for characterize the fresh properties of normal [18,76,96,100,106,107]. Sometimes, it is difficult to conduct the
concrete are not suitable for accurate description of 3DPC. There stress grow test for stiffer 3DPC. In this case, a strain-based
is also a lack of newly developed evaluation indicators obtained approach [108] was proposed to eliminate the limitation of the
from the printing process. Moreover, there is no standard for these low shear rate. The constant shear strain was maintained when
testing measurements, which limited their widespread application. the shear rate varied from 0.08 s1 to 0.24 s1. In the third model,
In this circumstance, rheology is a better choice for 3DPC with thixotropy index was evaluated by the relationships between the
accurate results to describe the printability. Different testing pro- static and dynamic yield stresses. Qian et al. [109] defined thixo-
grams were carried out to obtain the rheological parameters for tropy index (Ithix) as Ithix = si/se, where si and se were the initial
3DPC. The testing program includes the stepwise decreased rota- stress and equilibrium stress, respectively. In the study of Kolawole
tional velocity/shear rate with each step getting an equilibrium et al. [110] and Panda et al. [106], the thixotropy index was
stage, this is used to obtain the dynamic yield stress and plastic vis- (si-se/ se) 100%. Fourthly, Panda et al. [100,106] developed a vis-
cosity of 3DPC [98,101,102]. The torque vs. rotational velocity cosity recovery test with 3 steps to simulate the different stages of
curves or shear rate vs. shear stress curves are obtained from this the extruded materials, including the materials at rest before
program. The Reiner-Riwlin equations (Eqs. (6) and (7)) are used extrusion with a low shear rate for 60 s, materials when extruding
to transform the slope and intersection in the linear relationship with a high shear rate for 30 s and materials after extrusion with a
of torque vs. rotational velocity curves to yield stress and plastic low shear rate for 60 s, as shown in Fig. 11b, to study the structural
viscosity. The dynamic yield stress and plastic viscosity are recovery behavior. The viscosity recovery degree was obtained by
obtained by fitting the curves with the Bingham model for a linear comparing the viscosity in the first and third steps. Materials with
relationship or a Herschel model nonlinear relationship [103,104]. high viscosity recovery were suitable for 3DPC, showing the quick
Also, the ram extruder is used as an appropriate tool to test rheo- structural build-up properties.
logical parameters of 3DPC as mentioned in Section 2.1.1 based on Although rheological tests were carried out in many previous
Eq. (3) [38,105]. The yield stress can be obtained by testing four studies for a comprehensive and accurate description of fresh
different speeds with three varied dies with different sizes. 3DPC behavior, it is worth noting that the rheological results are
easily disturbed by different factors, leading to erroneous conclu-
R12
1
R21
sions [111]. Besides, the rheological tests are limited in measuring
s0 ¼ 2 G ð6Þ the 3DPC with high yield stress and viscosity.
ln RR21 4ph
3.2. Testing measurement of mechanical properties
1
R21
1
R22
l¼ H ð7Þ The studies on mechanical properties of 3DPC includes the fresh
2
8ph mechanical properties, interlayer bonding strength and anisotropic
mechanical properties in accordance to the difference of 3DPC and
where, h is the height of vane, s0 is dynamic yield stress, l is
conventional concrete. Most of the testing measurements of the
plastic viscosity, R1 is the radius of vane, R2 is the radius of the con-
mechanical properties of 3DPC can be referred to previous studies
tainer, G is the intersection of the torque axis, H is the slope of the
on the soil and conventional concrete.
linear fitting curve of torque and speed.
Different testing programs were conducted to measure the thix-
otropic properties of 3DPC. In the first method, the thixotropy was 3.2.1. Testing measurement of mechanical properties of fresh 3DPC
evaluated by the area of hysteresis loop circled by the shear rate vs. The simplest test method to reflect the internal strengthening
shear stress curves [20,98]. The test protocol is shown in Fig. 11a. rate of 3DPC is the penetration test [101], which can be used at
Generally, this method was difficult to quantitatively evaluate the the very early age. The initial and final setting time obtained by
thixotropic properties of 3DPC [51]. With regard to the second test- the penetration test via the Vicat apparatus can evaluate the floc-
ing program, it was developed to measure the flocculation proper- culation and hydration rate of materials, which further determines
ties of concrete to evaluate the structuration rate. The stress grow the stiffness development of 3DPC. Similarly, the hydration heat
10
S. Hou, Z. Duan, J. Xiao et al. Construction and Building Materials xxx (xxxx) xxx
(a) Mohr-Coulomb failure envelopes for each (b) Ultrasonic pulse velocity versus
concrete age as derived by TCT [60] compressive strength (in black) and Young’s
modulus (in grey) [116]
Fig. 12. The analysis of results from different testing measurements for fresh strength of 3DPC.
(a) Different loading direction for (b) Different loading direction for flexural
compressive strength of 3DPC strength of 3DPC
(c) Different test methods for interlayer (d) The flexural strength to evaluate the
bonding properties [86] interlayer bonding properties
Fig. 13. Test methods for anisotropic mechanical properties of 3DPC.
tests were used to help understand the internal strengthening per- was conducted by two horizontal plates with a circular opening
formance of fresh 3DPC in literature [18,98,101]. filled with compacting fresh concrete. Different loads were applied
Wolfs et al. [44] measured the fresh compressive strength by on the shear plate to get the parameters of C and u in Eq. (4). Fur-
the unconfined uniaxial compression test according to geotechni- ther, in order to simplify the tests, a triaxial compression test setup
cal tests. The compressive strength, vertical and lateral deforma- was developed to obtain all essential parameters from uniaxial
tion of specimens were recorded in the time range of 0–90 min compressive strength and direct shear strength tests based on
after mixing and preparing. Each test was performed until the ver- the Mohr-Coulomb criterion [59]. The specimen was located in a
tical strain reached 50%. Similar uniaxial compressive strength was closed chamber, where the air pressure was confining on the sam-
used in literature [57,58,65]. At the same time, the direct shear test ples and the ram was used to apply pressure in the vertical direc-
11
S. Hou, Z. Duan, J. Xiao et al. Construction and Building Materials xxx (xxxx) xxx
tion of samples. Three different confining pressures were applied Newly developed test methods are also necessary, such as the
in the test at the age of 90 mins. The compressive strength, Young’s real-time testing of printability, ultrasonic pulse velocity measure-
modulus and Poisson’s ratio were obtained when the confining ment for fresh strength.
pressure was 0. The cohesion and internal friction angle were
obtained by the Mohr-Coulomb failure envelop as shown in
4. Mix design of 3DPC
Fig. 12(a).
It has been proved that the ultrasonic pulse velocity could be
4.1. Materials
applied in testing the mechanical properties of hardened concrete
[112,113]. In order to test the fresh mechanical properties for 3DPC
The materials selected for the additive manufacturing process is
with non-destructive methods, the ultrasonic pulse velocity was
an important part to meet the requirement of 3DPC. According to
studied to test the fresh mechanical properties in literature
the high requirements of fresh properties of 3DPC, different sup-
[57,114]. Besides, the ultrasonic pulse velocity can be carried out
plement cementitious materials (SCMs), admixtures, fibers and
continuously with less human error, which is appropriate for
aggregates are applied.
3DPC. The linear relationship between ultrasonic pulse velocity
waves by compression and elastic modulus or compressive
strength was set up based on the testing results for 3DPC, as shown 4.1.1. Supplement cementitious materials
in Fig. 12(b), proving the feasibility of using ultrasonic pulse veloc- The cement to aggregate ratio of 3DPC at present is much higher
ity to evaluate the fresh mechanical properties of 3DPC. than that of normal concrete to achieve the required printability,
which may lead to an increased cost. SCMs like fly ash, silica fume,
3.2.2. Testing measurement of mechanical properties for hardened limestone filler, and blast furnace slag, are used to partially replace
3DPC cement. Table 3 shows the characteristic of different SCMs and
The testing measurements for mechanical properties of hard- their effects on the properties of concrete. Currently, there are
ened 3DPC, such as compressive and flexural strength, can be already many studies [19,20,38,69,95,116,117] utilizing these
traced to those researches of measurements on conventional con- SCMs as the materials of 3DPC.
crete. But the specimen preparation and the anisotropic test of As regards the research of different SCMs in 3DPC, Chen et al.
3DPC are still different from that of conventional concrete. With [116] demonstrated that the combined use of silica fume and fly
regard to the anisotropic test, it requires a different loading direc- ash could be used to replace 45% of cement. Panda et al. [100]
tion on the specimen, there are 3 loading directions for compres- developed a type of 3DPC with a high volume of fly ash (45%-80%
sive strength and 2 loading directions for flexural strength of binders by mass). Metakaolin was adopted to satisfy the build-
[64,70,115], as shown in Fig. 13(a) and (b). The specimens for ability of 3DPC due to the improvement in thixotropy [118,119].
3DPC are cut from the printed components and the size of which Nano silica, with an optimal dosage of 1%, was used to optimize
are sufficiently large. It should be noted that any interference dur- the properties of 3DPC with increased re-flocculation rate, thixo-
ing the cutting process, no matter a fresh state or hardened state of tropy and initial static yield stress [56,120]. The ternary binder sys-
the component is in, may affect the accuracy of the test. Besides, tem can enhance the fresh and hardened properties of concrete as
there is a significant variation of the anisotropic strength consider- well as reduce the CO2 emissions [48], leading to sustainable 3DPC.
ing the different printing paths. In terms of the interlayer bonding Liu et al. [102] developed a mix design approach of 3DPC through a
properties, Zareiyan et al. [84] reviewed different test methods as comparative study on the effect of individual and combined use of
shown in Fig. 13(c), including the direct tensile test, splitting test, different cementitious materials on the rheological properties of
wedge splitting test, slant shear test, torsion bond test and shear concrete, and the optimal volume fraction for each component of
strength test. The direct tensile test could be easily affected by different cementitious materials were also determined, in which
the tension strength of the material and its results had great dis- the cement, fly ash and silica fume occupied 15%, 26% and 4% of
creteness/variations. The results of the splitting test were indirect the concrete volume, respectively. Nerella et al. [69] observed that
tension. The results of the slant shear test were generally higher 3DPC with binders of 55% cement, 30% fly ash and 15% micro silica
than other tests. At present, the most commonly used test methods had high strength and low anisotropy and less reduction of inter-
for 3DPC are direct tensile test and splitting test [63,76]. Besides, face bond strength compared with cement 3DPC. The research by
the flexural strength could be used to evaluate the interlayer bond Papachristoforou et al. [95] indicated that the application of fly
strength when the loading direction was the same as that in Fig. 13 ash and ladle furnace slag to partly replace cement and limestone
(d) [77,89]. This is because the flexural strength obtained in this filler to partly replace sand had slight effect on the strength but
direction is related to the interlayer bond properties. significant positive effect on the durability of 3DPC.
Although the test methods for fresh and hardened strength of
3DPC according to the soil and conventional concrete have been 4.1.2. Admixtures
carried out in many studies, there is no standard to normalize Different admixtures are necessary to improve the properties of
these test methods. For different studies, there are large differences 3DPC during different printing processes. Superplasticizer is
in the loading speed, specimen size, preparing and curing of spec- almost applied in every mixture of 3DPC for the its capacity to suc-
imens, etc., making it difficult to compare their results directly. cessful extrusion. The addition of superplasticizer can reduce the
Therefore, it is of vital necessity to develop some universal stan- yield stress and plastic viscosity of concrete due to the dispersion
dards for testing the printability and mechanical properties of effect of the binder particles. It should be noted that the applied
3DPC, and this is also beneficial to optimize the mixture and dosage of superplasticizer should be between the critical and satu-
improve the properties of 3DPC, which will be discussed in ration dosage.
Section 4. The test methods for the durability of conventional con- Viscosity modified agent (VMA) was frequently used in 3DPC to
crete will be applied to 3DPC in the future even though there is enhance the viscosity and cohesion and then improve the shape
limited research on the durability of 3DPC nowadays. For example, stability after extrusion. The addition of VMA could increase the
the restrained shrinkage test and free shrinkage test were adopted yield stress, viscosity and thixotropy with a shear-thinning behav-
to investigate the shrinkage of 3DPC [70,95,115]. Just as mentioned ior of cementitious materials [137]. The effect of VMA on concrete
in Section 2.3, more tests on the microstructure should be con- performance depended on the type and applied dosage. In terms of
ducted to study the durability evolution mechanism of 3DPC. 3DPC, the most common types of VMA applied in the previous
12
S. Hou, Z. Duan, J. Xiao et al. Construction and Building Materials xxx (xxxx) xxx
Table 3
The SCMs used in concrete and their influence on concrete performance (results from literature [48,121–136]).
Characteristic The influence of SCMs on rheological properties The influence of SCMs on hardened properties
Fly ash High content of SiO2 and Al2O3, low content of The addition of fly ash has a great effect on the Low early strength and long setting time because
CaO, fine particle size in the range of 0.4–100 lm, rheological properties of concrete with different of the lower early hydration heat of fly ash, the
specific gravity in the range of 2.0–2.2, specific results, the varies in rheological properties are late-age mechanical properties and durability are
surface area varies from 300 to 500 m2/kg, related to the type, particle size and particle enhanced by the secondary hydration effect of fly
particle shape of class F fly ash is spherical with shape of fly ash, class F fly ash has a greater effect ash and Ca(OH)2
smooth surface on reducing the plastic viscosity than class C fly
ash
Silica fume High content of SiO2, average particle size in the The addition of silica fume increases the yield The compressive and flexural strength are
range of 0.1–0.3 lm, specific surface area varies stress, plastic viscosity and flocculation rate and increased with the application of silica fume,
in the range of 20000–28000 m2/kg decreases flowability of concrete, leading to the there is a slight effect of silica fume on splitting
high uniformity and cohesiveness of concrete, strength, high content of silica fume increases
the water to binder ratio and SP types has an the autogenous shrinkage.
important effect on the rheological properties of
concrete with silica fume.
Blast High content of CaO, SiO2 and Al2O3, specific The addition of blast furnace slag can improve Increasing the long-term compressive strength,
furnace gravity is about 2.9, specific surface area is in the the workability and reduce the plastic viscosity, enhancing the flexural strength, no matter early
slag range of 350–550 m2/kg, bulk density varies from the yield stress of concrete is related to the or later age, slight effects on the static elastic
1200 to 1300 kg/m3. replacement ratio and specific surface area of modulus, reducing the water and chloride ion
blast furnace slag permeability.
Limestone The main component is CaCO3, particle size is In most cases, the addition of limestone filler The addition of limestone filler may increase the
filler from below 1 um to several tens of lm, irregular increases the yield stress and plastic viscosity, compressive strength due to the filler effect and
and rough particle shape, high adsorption ability the rheological properties of concrete depend on nucleation effect of the finer particles
of SP the specific surface area and particle size
distribution of limestone filler
Metakaolin The main components are SiO2 and Al2O3, a large The slump is reduced and the setting time is Increasing the compressive and flexural strength
part of the particles is smaller than 16um, the increased with the addition of metakaolin, at a proper replacement ratio, reducing the ASR
mean particle size is about 3 lm, specific gravity increasing the thixotropy of concrete effects, shrinkage and permeability, which
is about 2.60, bulk density is in the range of 0.3– increase the durability
04 g/cm3
Nano silica Very high content of SiO2, the average particle Reducing the slump flow, slump and setting Refining the pore structure and leading to denser
size is about 9 nm, the specific surface area is time, and increasing the yield stress and plastic microstructure, enhancing the strength and
about 300 m2/g viscosity due to the accelerating effect, the durability of concrete due to its physical,
increase of yield stress is greater than plastic acceleration and pozzolanic effects
viscosity
studies were cellulose-based VMA and nano clay. Fig. 14 shows the applied it in the mixtures. This is because accelerator has a nega-
influence of different VMAs on the properties of 3DPC, where the tive effect on the open time and extrudability, which may lead to
data comes from different literatures as shown in Fig. 14(a)–(d). the blockage of materials in the printing process. It is better to
The addition of hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) could add the accelerator in the extruder nozzle or spray liquid acceler-
remarkably enhance yield stress and viscosity, with the increase ator on the printed element, which not only has a slight effect on
of extrusion pressure and shape retention of 3DPC [105]. However, the extrudability but also has a great effect on the structural
as the dosage of HPMC increased, the 28-day compressive strength build-up ability of concrete. The way of how to add accelerator is
decreased greatly, which was caused by the delayed hydration worthy of further study.
degree of cement paste with HPMC and the increased air voids in As discussed above, different types of SCMs and admixtures are
concrete [138]. Both microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) [20] and used in 3DPC. Attentions should be paid to the interaction of differ-
nano clay increased the yield stress, viscosity, thixotropy and 28- ent SCMs and admixtures to avoid poor performance. For example,
day compressive strength of 3DPC. Nano clay, with a needle shape, the combined use of silica fume and polycarboxylate superplasti-
was applied in the 3DPC because of its significant effect on the cizer/sulfonated naphthalene polymer had a varied effect on the
thixotropy [109,139,140]. A small amount of nano clay could rheological properties of concrete [144]. The combined use of nano
remarkably enhance the thixotropy, further improve the buildabil- clay and polycarboxylate superplasticizer could lead to the high
ity and green strength of 3DPC [18,55,98]. Rahul et al. [96] indi- thixotropy and static yield stress of 3DPC with low dynamic yield
cated that the combined use of silica fume, methyl cellulose- stress [109].
based VMA and nano clay could result in an appropriate mix design
of 3DPC with improved robustness. 4.1.3. Fibers
Accelerator and retarder were used to control the setting time Considering the brittle failure modes of 3DPC, which are caused
of 3DPC. Accelerator, such as lithium carbonate [20], was recom- by the low ratio of tensile to compressive strength, reinforcement
mended to obtain a short setting time to bear the stress from the addition to the 3DPC is a good way to improve its structural prop-
upper layer. Retarder could delay the hydration process of cement, erty. However, embedding the reinforcement into the 3DPC contin-
which were always used to control the setting time for concrete uously is difficult because of the layer-by-layer printing
with high early strength cement [140]. The application of retarder construction mode. Under this circumstance, the application of
could lead to a relatively smooth surface of the printed specimen. fibers attracted more attention. The organic fiber, steel fiber, basalt
This is because the retarder, such as sodium gluconate, has the fiber, carbon fiber and glass fiber have been used in 3DPC. Organic
effect of reducing water and improve the fluidity of mortar at a fibers are the most commonly used including the polypropylene
suitable dosage [141–143]. So, the amount of free water was fiber, polyethylene fiber and polyvinylalcohol fiber. The addition
increased in mortar, leading to a smoother surface of mortar. of fiber had an evident impact on the flexural and tensile strength,
Although the addition of accelerator has been proved to be benefi- which was caused by the alignment behavior of fiber after extru-
cial to the buildability and early strength, there are few studies sion [64,88]. It should be noted that the increased flexural and ten-
13
S. Hou, Z. Duan, J. Xiao et al. Construction and Building Materials xxx (xxxx) xxx
(a) Influence of different VMAs on yield stress (b) Influence of different VMAs on viscosity
sile strength of 3DPC with fiber was dependent on the printing Secondly, the desired direction of fiber alignment can be obtained
path [63]. However, the compressive strength and interface bond by adjusting the extrusion process. The future study on the optimal
strength were only slightly increased but might be decreased by printing path with different fibers can be carried out.
the addition of fiber. Panda et al. [64] found the glass fiber of
3 mm could decrease the compressive strength because the fibers
were parallel to the printing direction. Al-Qutaifi et al. [72] indi-
4.1.4. Aggregates
cated that the steel fiber was not suitable for 3DPC because the
Aggregates, which occupy a 60–70% volume of concrete, play an
protrusion of steel fibers could impede the adhesion of the inter-
important role in the performance of concrete. Compared with the
face layers. Generally, it is believed that a large volume of fibers
cement paste, the yield stress and plastic viscosity are increased
had a negative effect on the extrudability and might cause the
with the addition of aggregates, especially for aggregate with large
block in extrusion [30,63]. However, Ogura et al. [145] found that
gain size. Besides, the mechanical properties and shrinkage are
the volume of fiber was not the most important parameter to affect
related to the volume of aggregates. At present, only limited num-
the extrusion. The increase in fibers could lead to a decrease in the
ber of studies applied coarse aggregates in 3DPC [27,99], most of
extrusion force. Soltan and Li [146] applied a typical fiber volume
the researchers printed and studied 3D printed mortar without
fraction for engineered cementitious composite (2% by volume)
coarse aggregates. This was caused by the limitation of extrusion
in 3D printing with improved tensile strain capacity and a high
nozzle size and the complex properties of 3DPC with coarse aggre-
early age compressive strength. The steel cable, which is softer
gates. However, 3DPC with coarse aggregates, combined with lar-
than the steel bar, has been adopted in 3DPC [87,147]. Lim et al.
ger printing machines will be more widely used in practical
[147] embedded the steel cable into the extruded filament by a
construction and more research in this area should be conducted
special device. In addition, the polyvinylalcohol fiber was hybrid
in the future. The volume friction and gradation greatly affect the
adopted to prevent the cable slippage attributed to the interaction
rheological properties of 3DPC. Chaves Figueiredo et al. [38] found
between the short fiber and microcracks caused by a long steel
that the decrease of the maximum size of fine aggregate led to the
cable. The results showed that the hybrid reinforcement improved
development of the tight composite and increased the initial bulk
the flexural strength and the load for the first crack. The future
yield stress. Zhang et al. [115] and Ogura et al. [145] found the sand
study on applying fibers in 3DPC to improve the performance
to binder ratio had a great influence on the rheological properties
should concentrate on a number of directions. Firstly, a high vol-
and extrudability of 3DPC. The increase of sand to binder ratio
ume of fiber can be used in 3DPC with good extrudability by opti-
led to the improvement of yield stress and plastic viscosity and
mizing the mixtures with different SCMs and admixtures.
the reduction of thixotropy.
14
S. Hou, Z. Duan, J. Xiao et al. Construction and Building Materials xxx (xxxx) xxx
As natural sandstone resources shortage, a series of policies and cantly affected the open time and shape retention ability of 3D
regulations to limit natural sand mining has been adopted in China, printing geopolymers. In terms of the influence of activator types,
leading to the soaring prices of natural sand. At this circumstance, they found that the 3D printing geopolymer concrete with Na-
the sustainable aggregates were applied in 3DPC to replace sand. based activators had higher compressive strength than that with
Ma et al. [19] used copper tailings to replace natural sand in K-based activators. The preparation process of geopolymer
3DPC, they found that flowability increased and buildability includes a conventional two-part mixing process. The alkaline
decreased as the increase of the replacement ratio of copper tail- solution is used in this process, which may bring difficulties in
ings, which was caused by the finer particles of copper tailings. the extrusion process of 3D printing geopolymer concrete due to
The best mixture was proposed with the replacement ratio of the higher viscosity of the alkaline solution. Besides, the waste
40% of copper tailings with a sufficient buildability [148]. The alkaline solution is difficult to dispose of because of the corrosive
research group of the authors investigated the feasibility of apply- properties. Under this circumstance, one-part geopolymers were
ing recycled sand and recycled powder to replace cement or natu- used in 3DPC with a solid activator in literature [156,157]. The
ral sand in 3DPC [149–152]. A significant effect of recycled sand on buildability was proved by printing a section with a height of
the early age of mechanical behavior was obtained. The green 300 mm with slight deformation. The high viscosity recovery prop-
strength and buildability were enhanced while the open time erties of 70%-80% in 60 s demonstrated adequate extrudability. The
was reduced because of the high water absorption of recycled sand results showed that a one-part geopolymer had the potential to be
[58]. used in 3DPC with lower environmental impacts.
The application of coarse aggregates in 3DPC is an inevitable
trend for a wide range of applications of 3DPC in construction. 4.3. Mix design approaches for 3DPC
The tries have been carried out by Mechtcherine et al. [99] with
a maximum aggregate size of 8 mm in 3DPC. A good extrudability The mix design approaches need to satisfy the requirements of
in 90 mins and good buildability by printing 10 layers with a printability of 3DPC, which are related closely to the corresponding
height of 500 mm in 30 mins were proved. The mechanical proper- printer and printing process, making it different from the conven-
ties of 3DPC with coarse aggregates in the largest loading direction tional concrete. In the mix design process of 3DPC, extrudability
were not significantly different from the casted specimen (in 10%). and buildability must be considered firstly to guarantee the suc-
A large scale, on-site 3DPC building was introduced in literature cessful printing process. Ma et al. [92] proposed a preparation pro-
[27]. The 3DPC with a maximum aggregate size of 15 mm was cedure for the mix design of 3DPC according to the properties
adopted. The slump of printed concrete was 110 mm and the initial requirements of the printing process. The raw materials (cementi-
setting was controlled in 5–10 mins by using accelerators. The tious materials and aggregates) were firstly determined based on
compressive strength of printed concrete was similar to a casted the requirement of extrudability considering the nozzle size. Then
specimen. The study on the 3DPC with coarse aggregates is at the admixtures, SCMs and fibers were added to satisfy the perfor-
the initial stage, which remains challenges for the application of mance requirements of buildability, setting time, strength, and
coarse aggregates. The rheological properties are more complex shrinkage of 3DPC. Besides, the inconsistent requirements of the
with coarse aggregates, which are affected by the gradation and concrete performance during different processes, such as the high
particle size, volume fraction of coarse aggregate, shape, and sur- flowability with high water to binder ratio for extrusion but low
face properties and so on. It also brings difficulties to test the rhe- water to binder ratio for high strength, were balanced by the addi-
ological properties of 3DPC. This is because the present rheometers tion of superplasticizer. A similar opinion can be found in the liter-
are used for high flowability concrete, which may have problems in ature [158], which indicated that the mixture for 3DPC must
testing stiffer 3DPC. Besides, the addition of coarse aggregates may achieve the target goals of fresh properties. As discussed previ-
increase the extrusion pressure, leading to the high requirement of ously, the printability of 3DPC can be evaluated by the rheological
the 3D printer. properties. The studies on rheological properties revealed that the
type and content of SCMs, the maximum aggregate size, the con-
4.2. 3D printing geopolymer tent of aggregate and admixtures have a significant effect on rheo-
logical properties of 3DPC [48,144]. Liu et al. [102] developed and
Geopolymer is a sustainable construction material, which takes optimized a mix design approach based on the correlation between
the by-products from industrial waste as raw materials. The appli- SCMs (fly ash and silica fume) and rheological properties of print-
cation of geopolymer can reduce CO2 emissions with high mechan- able materials. The multi-objective optimization has been con-
ical properties and good durability. The 3DPC made of geopolymer ducted based on the rheological requirements of printable
was developed with adequate printability and mechanical proper- materials to optimize the mix proportion. Le et al. [26] proposed
ties [72,87,153]. Generally, fly ash, silica fume and ground granu- an optimal mix by evaluating the extrudability and buildability
lated blast-furnace slag were the most commonly used by- through the workability of materials. Rahul et al. [96] presented
products in geopolymer. Panda et al. [106] used silica fume and a mix design approach based on yield stress. They found that the
ground granulated blast-furnace slag to enhance the properties of printable materials with the yield stress in the range of 1.5–
3D printing fly ash-based geopolymer concrete. They found the 2.5 kPa could meet the requirement of extrudability and buildabil-
ground granulated blast-furnace slag had a significant effect on ity. Ivanova et al. [159] studied the effect of volume fraction and
the development of the structural build-up with a limited effect surface area of aggregate on the static yield stress of printable con-
on the workability. The rheological properties of the geopolymer crete. They found that the volume fraction had a more significant
system were mostly affected by the addition of silica fume. The effect on static yield stress and buildability. The relationship
activator agent is another important component of geopolymer between initial static yield stress and relative volume fraction
concrete, which can excite the activity of the by-products to be was proposed, which contributed for the mix design of 3DPC. The
binding materials. The effect of Si/Na ratio of the activator on the Fuller and Thompson theory and the Marson-Percy model, which
performance of a 3D printing geopolymer was investigated. Zhang were usually used to optimize the gradation and packing fraction
et al. [154] indicated that the Si/Na ratio of the activator affected of sand for conventional concrete, were applied in designing the
the rheological properties of the geopolymer. The yield stress and 3DPC by Weng et al. [160], and the effects of gradations on the rhe-
structural rebuilding ability increased with the decrease of Si/Na ological properties, related to the extrudability and buildability of
ratio. Bong et al. [155] demonstrated that the Si/Na ratio signifi- 3DPC, were studied. The applicable 3DPC was developed by using
15
S. Hou, Z. Duan, J. Xiao et al. Construction and Building Materials xxx (xxxx) xxx
17
S. Hou, Z. Duan, J. Xiao et al. Construction and Building Materials xxx (xxxx) xxx
[56] J. Kruger, S. Zeranka, G. van Zijl, An ab initio approach for thixotropy [86] G. Ma, J. Zhang, L. Wang, Z. Li, J. Sun, Mechanical characterization of 3D
characterisation of (nanoparticle-infused) 3D printable concrete, Constr. printed anisotropic cementitious material by the electromechanical
Build Mater. 224 (2019) 372–386. transducer, Smart Mater Struct. 27 (7) (2018) 75036.
[57] T. Voigt, T. Malonn, S.P. Shah, Green and early age compressive strength of [87] G. Ma, Z. Li, L. Wang, G. Bai, Micro-cable reinforced geopolymer composite for
extruded cement mortar monitored with compression tests and ultrasonic extrusion-based 3D printing, Mater. Lett. 235 (2019) 144–147.
techniques, Cem. Concr. Res. 36 (5) (2006) 858–867. [88] M. Hambach, D. Volkmer, Properties of 3D-printed fiber-reinforced Portland
[58] T. Ding, J. Xiao, F. Qin, Z. Duan, Mechanical behavior of 3D printed mortar cement paste, Cem. Concr. Compos. 79 (2017) 62–70.
with recycled sand at early ages, Constr. Build Mater. 248 (2020) 118654. [89] S.C. Paul, Y.W.D. Tay, B. Panda, M.J. Tan, Fresh and hardened properties of 3D
[59] R.J.M. Wolfs, F.P. Bos, T.A.M. Salet, Triaxial compression testing on early age printable cementitious materials for building and construction, Arch. Civ.
concrete for numerical analysis of 3D concrete printing, Cem. Concr. Compos. Mech. Eng. 18 (1) (2018) 311–319.
104 (2019) 103344. [90] Rosa, Maria, Espinosa, Lutz, Franke, Influence of the age and drying process
[60] R. Jayathilakage, P. Rajeev, J.G. Sanjayan, Yield stress criteria to assess the on pore structure and sorption isotherms of hardened cement paste, Cem.
buildability of 3D concrete printing, Const.r Build Mater. 240 (2020) 117989. Concr. Res. 36 (2006) 1969–1984.
[61] G.M. Moelich, J. Kruger, R. Combrinck, Plastic shrinkage cracking in 3D [91] P.K. Mehta, P.J.M. Monteiro, Concrete: Microstructure, Properties and
printed concrete, Compos. B Eng. 200 (2020) 108313. Materials, 3rd ed:., McGraw-Hill Professional, 2006.
[62] N. Makul, Advanced smart concrete – A review of current progress, benefits [92] G. Ma, L. Wang, Y. Ju, State-of-the-art of 3D printing technology of
and challenges, J. Clean. Prod. 274 (2020) 122899. cementitious material—An emerging technique for construction, Sci. China
[63] G. Ma, Z. Li, L. Wang, F. Wang, J. Sanjayan, Mechanical anisotropy of aligned Technol. Sci. 61 (4) (2018) 475–495.
fiber reinforced composite for extrusion-based 3D printing, Constr. Build [93] L. Wu, N. Farzadnia, C. Shi, Z. Zhang, H. Wang, Autogenous shrinkage of
Mater. 202 (2019) 770–783. high performance concrete: a review, Constr. Build Mater. 149 (2017)
[64] B. Panda, S. Chandra Paul, Tan M. Jen, Anisotropic mechanical performance of 62–75.
3D printed fiber reinforced sustainable construction material, Mater. Lett. [94] S. Zhutovsky, K. Kovler, Effect of internal curing on durability-related
209 (2017) 146–149. properties of high performance concrete, Cem. Concr. Res. 42 (1) (2012)
[65] F. Bos, R. Wolfs, Z. Ahmed, T. Salet, Additive manufacturing of concrete in 20–26.
construction: potentials and challenges of 3D concrete printing, Virt. Phys. [95] M. Papachristoforou, V. Mitsopoulos, M. Stefanidou, Use of by-products for
Prototyp. 11 (3) (2016) 209–225. partial replacement of 3D printed concrete constituents; rheology, strength
[66] J.J. Assaad, Correlating thixotropy of self-consolidating concrete to stability, and shrinkage performance, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale 13 (50) (2019)
formwork pressure, and multilayer casting, J. Mater. Civil Eng. 28 526–536.
(0401610710) (2016). [96] A.V. Rahul, M. Santhanam, H. Meena, Z. Ghani, 3D printable concrete: mixture
[67] N. Roussel, F. Cussigh, Distinct-layer casting of SCC: The mechanical design and test methods, Cem. Concr. Compos. 97 (2019) 13–23.
consequences of thixotropy, Cem. Concr. Res. 38 (5) (2008) 624–632. [97] Y.W.D. Tay, Y. Qian, M.J. Tan, Printability region for 3D concrete printing using
[68] A.M.A.K. Wael, Bond strength in multilayer casting of self-consolidating slump and slump flow test, Compos. B Eng. 174 (2019) 106968.
concrete, ACI Mater. J. 114 (3) (2017). [98] Y. Zhang, Y. Zhang, G. Liu, Y. Yang, M. Wu, B. Pang, Fresh properties of a novel
[69] V.N. Nerella, S. Hempel, V. Mechtcherine, Effects of layer-interface properties 3D printing concrete ink, Constr. Build. Mater. 174 (2018) 263–271.
on mechanical performance of concrete elements produced by extrusion- [99] V. Mechtcherine, V.N. Nerella, F. Will, M. Näther, J. Otto, M. Krause, Large-
based 3D-printing, Constr. Build Mater. 205 (2019) 586–601. scale digital concrete construction – CONPrint3D concept for on-site,
[70] T.T. Le, S.A. Austin, S. Lim, R.A. Buswell, R. Law, A.G.F. Gibb, et al., Hardened monolithic 3D-printing, Automat Constr. 107 (2019) 102933.
properties of high-performance printing concrete, Cem. Concr. Res. 42 (3) [100] B. Panda, M.J. Tan, Rheological behavior of high volume fly ash mixtures
(2012) 558–566. containing micro silica for digital construction application, Mater. Lett. 237
[71] B. Panda, S.C. Paul, N.A.N. Mohamed, Y.W.D. Tay, M.J. Tan, Measurement of (2019) 348–351.
tensile bond strength of 3D printed geopolymer mortar, Measurement 113 [101] M. Chen, L. Li, Y. Zheng, P. Zhao, L. Lu, X. Cheng, Rheological and mechanical
(2018) 108–116. properties of admixtures modified 3D printing sulphoaluminate
[72] S. Al-Qutaifi, A. Nazari, A. Bagheri, Mechanical properties of layered cementitious materials, Constr. Build Mater. 189 (2018) 601–611.
geopolymer structures applicable in concrete 3D-printing, Constr. Build [102] Z. Liu, M. Li, Y. Weng, T.N. Wong, M.J. Tan, Mixture design approach to
Mater. 176 (2018) 690–699. optimize the rheological properties of the material used in 3D cementitious
[73] J. Van Der Putten, G. De Schutter, K. Van Tittelboom, The effect of print material printing, Constr. Build Mater. 198 (2019) 245–255.
parameters on the (micro)structure of 3D printed cementitious materials, in: [103] F. de Larrard, C.F. Ferraris, T. Sedran, Fresh concrete: a herschel-bulkley
T. Wangler (Ed.), RJ Flatteditors, Springer International Publishing, Cham, material, Mater. Struct. 31 (7) (1998) 494–498.
2019, pp. 234–244. [104] H. A. B, J. F. H, K W. An introduction to rheology: Elsevier Science, 1989.
[74] M. Moini, J. Olek, B. Magee, P. Zavattieri, J. Youngblood, Additive [105] Chen Y, Chaves Figueiredo S, Yalçinkaya Ç, Çopuroğlu O, Veer F, Schlangen E.
manufacturing and characterization of architectured cement-based The effect of viscosity-modifying admixture on the extrudability of limestone
materials via X-ray micro-computed tomography, RILEM Bookseries (2019) and calcined clay-based cementitious material for extrusion-based 3D
176–189. concrete printing, Materials. 12(9) (2019) 1374.
[75] B. Panda, N.A. Noor Mohamed, Y.W.D. Tay, M.J. Tan, Bond strength in 3D [106] B. Panda, C. Unluer, M.J. Tan, Investigation of the rheology and strength of
printed geopolymer mortar, in: T. Wangler (Ed.), RJ Flatteditors, Springer geopolymer mixtures for extrusion-based 3D printing, Cem. Concr. Compos.
International Publishing, Cham, 2019, pp. 200–206. 94 (2018) 307–314.
[76] B. Panda, N.A. Noor Mohamed, S.C. Paul, G. Bhagath Singh, M.J. Tan, B. Šavija, [107] J. Ouyang, Y. Tan, D.J. Corr, S.P. Shah, The thixotropic behavior of fresh cement
The effect of material fresh properties and process parameters on buildability asphalt emulsion paste, Constr. Build Mater. 114 (2016) 906–912.
and interlayer adhesion of 3D printed concrete, Materials 12 (13) (2019) [108] V.N. Nerella, M.A.B. Beigh, S. Fataei, V. Mechtcherine, Strain-based approach
2149. for measuring structural build-up of cement pastes in the context of digital
[77] R.J.M. Wolfs, F.P. Bos, T.A.M. Salet, Hardened properties of 3D printed construction, Cem. Concr. Res. 115 (2019) 530–544.
concrete: The influence of process parameters on interlayer adhesion, Cem. [109] Y. Qian, G. De Schutter, Enhancing thixotropy of fresh cement pastes with
Concr. Res. 119 (2019) 132–140. nanoclay in presence of polycarboxylate ether superplasticizer (PCE), Cem.
[78] V. Mechtcherine, S. Shyshko, Simulating the behaviour of fresh concrete with Concr. Res. 111 (2018) 15–22.
the distinct element method – Deriving model parameters related to the yield [110] J.T. Kolawole, R. Combrinck, W.P. Boshoff, Measuring the thixotropy of
stress, Cem. Concr. Compos. 55 (2015) 81–90. conventional concrete: the influence of viscosity modifying agent,
[79] R. Duballet, O. Baverel, J. Dirrenberger, Classification of building systems for superplasticiser and water, Constr. Build Mater. 225 (2019) 853–867.
concrete 3D printing, Automat Constr. 83 (2017) 247–258. [111] O.H. Wallevik, D. Feys, J.E. Wallevik, K.H. Khayat, Avoiding inaccurate
[80] J.G. Sanjayan, B. Nematollahi, M. Xia, T. Marchment, Effect of surface moisture interpretations of rheological measurements for cement-based materials,
on inter-layer strength of 3D printed concrete, Constr. Build Mater. 172 Cem. Concr. Res. 78 (2015) 100–109.
(2018) 468–475. [112] V.G. Haach, L.M. Juliani, M.R.D. Roz, Ultrasonic evaluation of mechanical
[81] T. Marchment, J. Sanjayan, Method of enhancing interlayer bond strength in properties of concretes produced with high early strength cement, Constr.
3D concrete printing, in: T. Wangler (Ed.), RJ Flatteditors, Springer Build Mater. 96 (2015) 1–10.
International Publishing, Cham, 2019, pp. 148–156. [113] N. Sabbağ, O. Uyanık, Prediction of reinforced concrete strength by ultrasonic
[82] T. Marchment, J. Sanjayan, M. Xia, Method of enhancing interlayer bond velocities, J. Appl. Geophys. 141 (2017) 13–23.
strength in construction scale 3D printing with mortar by effective bond area [114] R.J.M. Wolfs, F.P. Bos, T.A.M. Salet, Correlation between destructive
amplification, Mater. Design 169 (2019) 107684. compression tests and non-destructive ultrasonic measurements on early
[83] E. Hosseini, M. Zakertabrizi, A.H. Korayem, G. Xu, A novel method to enhance age 3D printed concrete, Constr. Build Mater. 181 (2018) 447–454.
the interlayer bonding of 3D printing concrete: an experimental and [115] Y. Zhang, Y. Zhang, W. She, L. Yang, G. Liu, Y. Yang, Rheological and harden
computational investigation, Cem. Concr. Compos. 99 (2019) 112–119. properties of the high-thixotropy 3D printing concrete, Constr. Build. Mater.
[84] B. Zareiyan, B. Khoshnevis, Effects of interlocking on interlayer adhesion and 201 (2019) 278–285.
strength of structures in 3D printing of concrete, Automat Constr. 83 (2017) [116] Y. Chen, F. Veer, O. Copuroglu, E. Schlangen, Feasibility of using low CO2
212–221. concrete alternatives in extrusion-based 3D concrete printing, RILEM
[85] P. Feng, X. Meng, J. Chen, L. Ye, Mechanical properties of structures 3D printed Bookseries (2019) 269–276.
with cementitious powders, Constr. Build. Mater. 93 (2015) 486–497.
18
S. Hou, Z. Duan, J. Xiao et al. Construction and Building Materials xxx (xxxx) xxx
[117] B. Lu, Y. Qian, M. Li, Y. Weng, K.F. Leong, M.J. Tan, et al., Designing spray- [140] N. Khalil, G. Aouad, K. El Cheikh, S. Rémond, Use of calcium sulfoaluminate
based 3D printable cementitious materials with fly ash cenosphere and air cements for setting control of 3D-printing mortars, Constr. Build. Mater. 157
entraining agent, Constr. Build. Mater. 211 (2019) 1073–1084. (2017) 382–391.
[118] Chen, Li, Figueiredo C, Çopuroğlu, Veer, Schlangen. Limestone and calcined [141] S. Ma, W. Li, S. Zhang, D. Ge, J. Yu, X. Shen, Influence of sodium gluconate on
clay-based sustainable cementitious materials for 3D concrete printing: A the performance and hydration of Portland cement, Constr. Build. Mater. 91
fundamental study of extrudability and early-age strength development, (2015) 138–144.
Applied Sciences. 9(9) (2019) 1809. [142] X. Zhang, Y. He, C. Lu, Z. Huang, Effects of sodium gluconate on early
[119] M. Chen, L. Yang, Y. Zheng, Y. Huang, L. Li, P. Zhao, et al., Yield stress and hydration and mortar performance of Portland cement-calcium aluminate
thixotropy control of 3D-printed calcium sulfoaluminate cement composites cement-anhydrite binder, Constr. Build. Mater. 157 (2017) 1065–1073.
with metakaolin related to structural build-up, Constr. Build. Mater. 252 [143] F. Zou, H. Tan, Y. Guo, B. Ma, X. He, Y. Zhou, Effect of sodium gluconate on
(2020) 119090. dispersion of polycarboxylate superplasticizer with different grafting density
[120] O.A. Mendoza Reales, P. Duda, E.C.C.M. Silva, M.D.M. Paiva, R.D.T. Filho, in side chain, J. Ind. Eng. Chem. 55 (2017) 91–100.
Nanosilica particles as structural buildup agents for 3D printing with [144] A.I. Laskar, S. Talukdar, Rheological behavior of high performance concrete
Portland cement pastes, Constr. Build. Mater. 219 (2019) 91–100. with mineral admixtures and their blending, Constr. Build. Mater. 22 (12)
[121] R.S. Ahari, T.K. Erdem, K. Ramyar, Thixotropy and structural breakdown (2008) 2345–2354.
properties of self consolidating concrete containing various supplementary [145] H. Ogura, V. Nerella, V. Mechtcherine, Developing and testing of strain-
cementitious materials, Cem Concr Compos. 59 (2015) 26–37. hardening cement-based composites (SHCC) in the context of 3D-printing,
[122] M. Balapour, A. Joshaghani, F. Althoey, Nano-SiO2 contribution to Materials 11 (8) (2018) 1375.
mechanical, durability, fresh and microstructural characteristics of [146] D.G. Soltan, V.C. Li, A self-reinforced cementitious composite for building-
concrete: a review, Constr Build Mater. 181 (2018) 27–41. scale 3D printing, Cem. Concr. Compos. 90 (2018) 1–13.
[123] C.F. Ferraris, K.H. Obla, R. Hill, The influence of mineral admixtures on the [147] J.H. Lim, B. Panda, Q. Pham, Improving flexural characteristics of 3D printed
rheology of cement paste and concrete, Cem. Concr. Res. 31 (2) (2001) 245– geopolymer composites with in-process steel cable reinforcement, Constr.
255. Build. Mater. 178 (2018) 32–41.
[124] S. Hou, Z. Duan, Z. Ma, A. Singh, Improvement on the properties of waste glass [148] Z. Li, L. Wang, G. Ma, Method for the enhancement of buildability and
mortar with nanomaterials, Constr. Build. Mater. 254 (2020) 118973. bending resistance of 3D printable tailing mortar, Int. J. Concr. Struct. M 12
[125] G. Li, X. Wu, Influence of fly ash and its mean particle size on certain (1) (2018) 37.
engineering properties of cement composite mortars, Cem. Concr. Res. 35 (6) [149] T. Ding, J. Xiao, S. Zou, Y. Wang, Hardened properties of layered 3D printed
(2005) 1128–1134. concrete with recycled sand, Cem. Concr. Compos. 113 (2020) 103724.
[126] M.S.M. Norhasri, M.S. Hamidah, A.M. Fadzil, Applications of using nano [150] T. Ding, J. Xiao, S. Zou, X. Zhou, Anisotropic behavior in bending of 3D printed
material in concrete: a review, Constr. Build. Mater. 133 (2017) 91–97. concrete reinforced with fibers, Compos. Struct. 254 (2020) 112808.
[127] E. Özbay, M. Erdemir, H.I. _ Durmusß, Utilization and efficiency of ground [151] J. Xiao, S. Zou, Y. Yu, Y. Wang, T. Ding, Y. Zhu, et al., 3D recycled mortar
granulated blast furnace slag on concrete properties – A review, Constr. Build. printing: System development, process design, material properties and on-
Mater. 105 (2016) 423–434. site printing, J. Build. Eng. 32 (2020) 101779.
[128] M.K. Rahman, M.H. Baluch, M.A. Malik, Thixotropic behavior of self [152] Z. Duan, S. Hou, J. Xiao, A. Singh, Rheological properties of mortar containing
compacting concrete with different mineral admixtures, Constr. Build. recycled powders from construction and demolition wastes, Constr. Build.
Mater. 50 (2014) 710–717. Mater. 237 (2020) 117622.
[129] R. Saleh Ahari, T. Kemal Erdem, K. Ramyar, Effect of various supplementary [153] B. Panda, S.C. Paul, L.J. Hui, Y.W.D. Tay, M.J. Tan, Additive manufacturing of
cementitious materials on rheological properties of self-consolidating geopolymer for sustainable built environment, J. Clean. Prod. 167 (2017)
concrete, Constr. Build. Mater. 75 (2015) 89–98. 281–288.
[130] L. Senff, J.A. Labrincha, V.M. Ferreira, D. Hotza, W.L. Repette, Effect of nano- [154] D. Zhang, D. Wang, X. Lin, T. Zhang, The study of the structure rebuilding and
silica on rheology and fresh properties of cement pastes and mortars, Constr. yield stress of 3D printing geopolymer pastes, Constr. Build. Mater. 184
Build Mater. 23 (7) (2009) 2487–2491. (2018) 575–580.
[131] R. Siddique, Utilization of silica fume in concrete: review of hardened [155] S.H. Bong, B. Nematollahi, A. Nazari, M. Xia, J.G. Sanjayan, Fresh and hardened
properties, Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 55 (11) (2011) 923–932. properties of 3D printable geopolymer cured in ambient temperature, RILEM
[132] R. Siddique, J. Klaus, Influence of metakaolin on the properties of mortar and Bookseries (2019) 3–11.
concrete: a review, Appl. Clay Sci. 43 (3–4) (2009) 392–400. [156] B. Panda, G.B. Singh, C. Unluer, M.J. Tan, Synthesis and characterization of
[133] D. Wang, C. Shi, N. Farzadnia, Z. Shi, H. Jia, A review on effects of limestone one-part geopolymers for extrusion based 3D concrete printing, J. Clean.
powder on the properties of concrete, Constr. Build Mater. 192 (2018) 153– Prod. 220 (2019) 610–619.
166. [157] B. Nematollahi, M. Xia, S.H. Bong, J. Sanjayan, Hardened properties of 3D
[134] D. Wang, C. Shi, N. Farzadnia, Z. Shi, H. Jia, Z. Ou, A review on use of limestone printable ’One-Part’ geopolymer for construction applications, RILEM
powder in cement-based materials: mechanism, hydration and Bookseries (2019) 190–199.
microstructures, Constr. Build Mater. 181 (2018) 659–672. [158] Z. Malaeb, H. Hachem, A. Tourbah, T. Maalouf, F. Hamzeh, 3D concrete
[135] G. Xu, X. Shi, Characteristics and applications of fly ash as a sustainable printing: machine and mix design, International Journal of Civil, Eng. Technol.
construction material: a state-of-the-art review, Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 136 6 (6) (2015) 14–22.
(2018) 95–109. [159] Ivanova I, Mechtcherine V. Effects of volume fraction and surface area of
[136] P. Zhang, J. Wan, K. Wang, Q. Li, Influence of nano-SiO 2 on properties of fresh aggregates on the static yield stress and structural build-up of fresh concrete,
and hardened high performance concrete: a state-of-the-art review, Constr. Materials (Basel, Switzerland). 13(7) (2020) 1551.
Build. Mater. 148 (2017) 648–658. [160] Y. Weng, M. Li, M.J. Tan, S. Qian, Design 3D printing cementitious materials
[137] D. Marchon, S. Kawashima, H. Bessaies-Bey, S. Mantellato, S. Ng, Hydration via fuller thompson theory and marson-percy model, Constr. Build Mater.
and rheology control of concrete for digital fabrication: Potential admixtures 163 (2018) 600–610.
and cement chemistry, Cem. Concr. Res. 112 (2018) 96–110. [161] B. Lu, Y. Weng, M. Li, Y. Qian, K.F. Leong, M.J. Tan, et al., A systematical review
[138] S. Chaves Figueiredo, O. Çopuroğlu, E. Schlangen, Effect of viscosity modifier of 3D printable cementitious materials, Constr. Build. Mater. 207 (2019) 477–
admixture on Portland cement paste hydration and microstructure, Constr. 490.
Build Mater. 212 (2019) 818–840. [162] C. Shi, Z. Wu, K. Lv, L. Wu, A review on mixture design methods for self-
[139] Z. Quanji, G.R. Lomboy, K. Wang, Influence of nano-sized highly purified compacting concrete, Constr. Build. Mater. 84 (2015) 387–398.
magnesium alumino silicate clay on thixotropic behavior of fresh cement
pastes, Constr. Build. Mater. 69 (2014) 295–300.
19
Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.
Alternative Proxies: