This paper aims to provide a systematical review of the available printing strategies, sustainable cementitious materials and characterization methods for extrusion-based 3D concrete printing (3DCP). The printing strategies, consisting of printing setup, process, and material requirements, were summarized initially. In the material aspect, the high ordinary Portland cement (OPC) content in most printable mixtures is a major issue that impedes the sustainability of 3DCP. This can be resolved by partially substituting OPC with supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). In this review, the effect of different SCMs on fresh-state behaviors and 3D printing of cementitious materials was comprehensively discussed. Finally, a series of test methods for quantitively characterizing fresh properties, 3D printability and interlayer behaviors were summarized and reviewed.

In this paper, both synthetic slag and commercial slag covering the common composition range were employed to estimate the correlation between slag chemistry and reactivity through hydraulicity and dissolution tests. It was found that slag reactivity was favorably affected by increasing Al₂O₃ and MgO contents, while the adverse effect of decreasing CaO/SiO₂ ratio could be compensated by higher amounts of Al₂O₃ and/or MgO. When calorimetric measurement was used to assess the reactivity of slag, the effect of sulfur species incorporated in commercial slag should be taken into consideration as a small quantity of it could lead to a major difference of cumulative heat release due to the formation of ettringite. Moreover, a novel graphical method was proposed to estimate the reactivity of slag considering its chemical composition from a new perspective, i.e. a cartesian coordinate system based on (CaO/SiO₂)−(MgO + Al₂O₃).

This paper proposes the use of desalination brine as a setting and hydration activator in set-on-demand 3D concrete printing. A series of tests were conducted to investigate the effect of adding different concentrations of desalination brine on stiffness evolution and early-age hydration of Portland cement mortars (PC mixtures) and limestone-calcined clay-based cementitious materials (LC mixtures). Results show that, increasing brine concentration decreased slump, flowability and initial setting time, as well as enhanced buildability, and stimulated the stiffness development within the first hour. Furthermore, the addition of desalination brine resulted in an acceleration of cement hydration, a higher amount of chemically bound water and a higher 1st day compressive strength. The abovementioned behaviors were further promoted by doubling the brine concentration. Due to the presence of reactive aluminates in calcined clay, the acceleration of first-day hydration was slightly diminished and a higher intensity of Friedel's salt was observed in LC mixtures compared to that of PC mixtures with the same desalination brine addition.

This paper presents an experimental investigation on the short-term creep recovery of cement paste at micrometre length scale. Micro-cantilever beams were fabricated and tested with 8 different loading series using the nanoindenter. It is found that cement pastes show high recovery ratios (>80%) even subjected to very high stress levels. Relatively lower recovery ratios and non-linear creep were also observed for w/c 0.4 samples under high stress levels. A good agreement is found between the results predicted using the linear superposition principle and the experimental results except for the measured non-linear creep in w/c 0.4 samples. It is suggested that the short-term creep recovery may be associated with the microscale stress redistribution or the reversible internal water movement. The observed non-linear creep under the highest stress level may be due to the higher density of microcracks generated during the loading stage, which may further promote the water transfer.

This paper explores the sustainability aspects of binders used in concrete 3D concrete printing. Firstly, a prospective approach to conduct sustainability-assessment based on the life cycle of 3D printed structures is presented, which also highlights the importance of considering the functional requirements of the mixes used for 3D printing. The potential of the material production phase is emphasized to enhance the sustainability potential of 3DCP by reducing the embodied impacts. The literature on the different binder systems used for producing 3D printable mixtures is reviewed. This review includes binders based on portland cement and supplementary cementing materials (SCMs) such as fly ash, silica-fume and slag. Also, alternative binders such as geopolymer, calcium sulfo-aluminate cement (CSA), limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) and reactive magnesium oxide systems are explored. Finally, sustainability assessment by quantifying the environmental impacts in terms of energy consumed and CO₂ emissions of mixtures is illustrated with different binder systems. This paper underlines the effect of using SCMs and alternative binder systems for improving the sustainability of 3D printed structures.

In this work, the lattice model is applied to study the printing process and quantify the buildability (i.e., the maximum height that can be printed) for 3D concrete printing (3DCP). The model simulates structural failure by incorporating an element birth technique, time-dependent stiffness and strength, printing velocity, non-uniform gravitational load, localized damage, and spatial variation of the printed object. The model can reproduce the plastic collapse failure modes reported in the literature. In this research, three main contributions for 3DCP modeling work can be found. A new failure criterion is proposed and adopted to improve the estimation of critical printing height; the element birth technique is utilized to mimic the continuous printing process and study the impact of non-uniform gravitational load; variability of a printed structure is modeled through the inclusion of disorder during mesh generation and Gaussian distributions of material properties. Using this model, parametric analyses on non-uniform gravitational load and material variation are conducted to assess their impact on the failure–deformation response and the critical printing height. Finally, the model is validated by comparison with two 3D printing experiments from the literature. The proposed lattice model can reproduce the correct failure-deformation modes of two types of structures commonly used for buildability quantification: A 3D-printed hollow cylinder and a square wall layout. Lattice modeling of the square structure yields a relative difference of around 10% with the experimental printing height. For the cylinder structure, the predicted radial deformation and corresponding height show good agreement with the experimental data; the model yields a 41.38% overprediction of the total number of printing layers, compared with the experimental data. Possible reasons for the quantitative discrepancy are discussed.

This paper aims to investigate the influences of high Portland cement substitutions (>60 wt%) by low-grade calcined clay (CC) and limestone (LF) on 3D concrete printability, stiffness evolution and early-age hydration. Results show that, with the same dosage of admixtures (superplasticizer and viscosity modifier), increasing LF and CC content reduced the slump, flowability and initial material flow rate, and significantly improved the buildability of fresh mixtures, which can be attributed to the reduced water film thickness (WFT). Furthermore, the stiffness evolution and SSA_total development up to the first 3 h were accelerated by increasing CC content, which can also be linked to the change of WFT, and consumption of superplasticizer for the dispersion induced by hydration products. Additionally, the dilution effect on compressive strength and hydration caused by the high cement replacement was observed.

For a single batch material, time intervals and nozzle standoff distances between two subsequent layers are two critical printing parameters that influence the mechanical performance of the printed concrete. This paper presents an experimental and numerical study to investigate the impacts of these printing parameters on the interlayer bond strength of the 3D printed limestone and calcined clay-based cementitious materials. All samples were manufactured by a lab-scale 3D printer equipped with a hybrid back- and down-flow nozzle (rectangular opening). The uniaxial tensile test was employed to quantify the interface adhesion of printed specimens. Moreover, the greyscale value image of microstructure, as well as the air void content and distribution of the printed specimens were acquired by X-ray computed tomography and characterized by image analysis. The experimental results showed that extending the time interval between construction of two layers could decrease the bond strength, whereas only increasing the nozzle standoff distance exhibited limited effects on that. The weak bond strength could be attributed to the high local porosity at the interface of the specimen. Additionally, numerical simulations of the uniaxial tensile test were conducted using a 2D lattice fracture model, which can predict the bond strength of printed specimens for different void content in the interface layer.

This study proposes an experimental method for studying the short-term creep behaviour of cement paste at micro-scale. The micro-bending tests on miniaturized cantilever beams were used to characterize the viscoelastic properties of cement paste. The effects of w/b ratio, the type of binder and the stress level on the microscopic creep behaviour were investigated. It is found that the short-term creep of cement paste at microscale can be satisfactorily described by a power-law function. A linear viscoelastic behaviour has been observed in different cementitious systems at the microscale with the stress level up to 67.9%. When compared with the creep results in microindentation tests and conventional macroscopic tests, the obtained creep compliance function in this study is found to be both qualitatively and quantitatively representative of the macroscopic results. This experimental study underlines the importance of microstructural effect on the creep behaviours of cementitious materials at microscale.