Testing Mortars for 3D Printing: Correlation with Rheological Behavior.

3D printing concrete; consistency; mortars; rheology measurements; shear level; shear stress; viscosity; 3-D printing; 3D-printing; Flow tables; Rheological behaviour; Rheological property; Rheology measurement; Table tests; Materials Science (all); Condensed Matter Physics

Abstract :

[en] Three-dimensionally printed concrete is a transformative technology that addresses housing shortages due to population growth and enables innovative architectural designs. The objective of this study is to investigate the connection between a conventional test and the rheological properties of 3D-printed concrete. A more precise assessment of material quality based on traditional evaluation techniques is proposed. Standard tests are conducted to evaluate the consistency of 3D-printed concrete materials. Complementarily, a rheometer is employed to accurately measure key rheological properties, thereby establishing a link with empiric testing methodologies. The correlation between the flow table test and rheological coefficients, such as yield stress and viscosity, has been identified as the most effective in basic experiments for evaluating material behavior. This approach allows for a preliminary assessment of printability without the need for additional complex equipment. The study has successfully established a relationship between flow table tests and rheological parameters. However, further research involving a broader range of materials and print-test experiments is essential to enhance the correlation between other conventional testing methods and rheometer results.

Disciplines :

Materials science & engineering

Author, co-author :

Ta, Minh Phuong Bao ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Urban and Environmental Engineering

Yeakleang, Muy; Urban and Environmental Engineering, Building Materials, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium

Abdelouhab, Sandra ; Belgian Ceramic Research Center, 7000 Mons, Belgium

Courard, Luc ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département ArGEnCo > Matériaux de construction non métalliques du génie civil

Language :

English

Title :

Testing Mortars for 3D Printing: Correlation with Rheological Behavior.

Publication date :

2024

Journal title :

Materials

eISSN :

1996-1944

Publisher :

MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

5002

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/17/20/5002/pdf

Funding text :

This research was funded by Regional Government of Wallonia (Belgium) through BEXTRUS (Impression 3D de B\u00E9ton par EXTRUSion) research project (2022\u20132024).

Available on ORBi :

since 31 July 2025

Statistics

Number of views

49 (2 by ULiège)

Number of downloads

37 (2 by ULiège)

More statistics

Scopus citations^®

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

OpenCitations

OpenAlex citations

Bibliography

De Schutter G. Lesage K. Mechtcherine V. Nerella V.N. Habert G. Agusti-Juan I. Vision of 3D printing with concrete—Technical, economic and environmental potentials SI Digit. Concr. 2018 112 25 36 10.1016/j.cemconres.2018.06.001
Wang Y. Aslani F. Dyskin A. Pasternak E. Digital Twin Applications in 3D Concrete Printing Sustainability 2023 15 2124 10.3390/su15032124
Gosselin C. Duballet R. Roux P. Gaudillière N. Dirrenberger J. Morel P. Large-scale 3D printing of ultra-high performance concrete—A new processing route for architects and builders Mater. Des. 2016 100 102 109 10.1016/j.matdes.2016.03.097
Ungureanu D. Onuțu C. Țăranu N. Vornicu N. Zghibarcea Ș.V. Ghiga D.A. Spiridon I.A. Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Cost-Efficient 3D Printed Concrete Reinforced with Polypropylene Fibers Buildings 2023 13 2813 10.3390/buildings13112813
Zhang J. Wang J. Dong S. Yu X. Han B. A review of the current progress and application of 3D printed concrete Compos. Part Appl. Sci. Manuf. 2019 125 105533 10.1016/j.compositesa.2019.105533
Li W. Lin X. Bao D.W. Xie Y.M. A review of formwork systems for modern concrete construction Structures 2022 38 52 63 10.1016/j.istruc.2022.01.089
Solodziuk B. 10 Houses 3D Printed in 10 Weeks|COBOD International Available online: https://cobod.com/10-houses-3d-printed-in-10-weeks-on-the-largest-3d-printing-project-site/ (accessed on 18 July 2024)
Siddika A. Mamun M.A.A. Ferdous W. Saha A.K. Alyousef R. 3D-printed concrete: Applications, performance, and challenges J. Sustain. Cem.-Based Mater. 2020 9 127 164 10.1080/21650373.2019.1705199
Zhang Y. Zhang Y. Liu G. Yang Y. Wu M. Pang B. Fresh properties of a novel 3D printing concrete ink Constr. Build. Mater. 2018 174 263 271 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.04.115
Arunothayan A.R. Nematollahi B. Khayat K.H. Ramesh A. Sanjayan J.G. Rheological characterization of ultra-high performance concrete for 3D printing Cem. Concr. Compos. 2023 136 104854 10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2022.104854
Tay Y.W.D. Qian Y. Tan M.J. Printability region for 3D concrete printing using slump and slump flow test Compos. Part B Eng. 2019 174 106968 10.1016/j.compositesb.2019.106968
Pham T.L. Zhuang X.J. Nguyen T.H.T. Nguyen P.A. Trinh D.T. Experimental investigations on the rheological properties of the proposed 3D printing mortar Vietnam J. Sci. Technol. Eng. 2022 64 50 53 10.31276/VJSTE.64(2).50-53
Yılmaz H. 3D Yazici Teknolojïsïne Uygun Sürdürülebïlïr Ve Yenïlïkçï Betonlarin Gelïştïrïlmesï 2018 Available online: https://www.academia.edu/77522112/3d_yazici_teknoloji_si_ne_uygun_su_rdu_ru_lebi_li_r_ve_yeni_li_kc_i_betonlarin_geli_s_ti_ri_lmesi_ (accessed on 30 September 2024)
Varela H. Pimentel Tinoco M. Mendoza Reales O. Toldeo Filho R. Barluenga G. Rheological and 3D printing assessment of sisal fiber mortar for architectural applications Proceedings of the 4th RILEM International Conference on Concrete and Digital Fabrication Munich, Germany 4–6 September 2024 10.24355/dbbs.084-202408021017-0
Rehman A.U. Basha S.I. Choi K. Kang M. Kim J.-H. An Analysis of Penetrometer Test Methods for Structural Build-Up in Stiff and Accelerated 3D Concrete Printing Mixtures Construction 3D Printing Tan M.J. Li M. Tay Y.W.D. Wong T.N. Bartolo P. Springer Nature Cham, Switzerland 2024 113 123
Le T.T. Austin S.A. Lim S. Buswell R.A. Gibb A.G.F. Thorpe T. Mix design and fresh properties for high-performance printing concrete Mater. Struct. 2012 45 1221 1232 10.1617/s11527-012-9828-z
Kulichikhin V.G. Malkin A.Y. The Role of Structure in Polymer Rheology: Review Polymers 2022 14 1262 10.3390/polym14061262 35335592
Stojkov G. Niyazov Z. Picchioni F. Bose R.K. Relationship between Structure and Rheology of Hydrogels for Various Applications Gels 2021 7 255 10.3390/gels7040255 34940315
Tarhan Y. Şahin R. Fresh and Rheological Performances of Air-Entrained 3D Printable Mortars Materials 2021 14 2409 10.3390/ma14092409
Rubio M. Sonebi M. Amziane S. 3D printing of fibre cement-based materials: Fresh and rheological performances Acad. J. Civ. Eng. 2017 35 480 488 10.26168/icbbm2017.74
Li Z. Hojati M. Wu Z. Piasente J. Ashrafi N. Duarte J.P. Nazarian S. Bilén S.G. Memari A.M. Radlińska A. Fresh and Hardened Properties of Extrusion-Based 3D-Printed Cementitious Materials: A Review Sustainability 2020 12 5628 10.3390/su12145628
Şahin H.G. Mardani A. Mardani N. Performance Requirements and Optimum Mix Proportion of High-Volume Fly Ash 3D Printable Concrete Buildings 2024 14 2069 10.3390/buildings14072069
Kaplan D. de Larrard F. Sedran T. Design of Concrete Pumping Circuit Available online: https://www.concrete.org/publications/internationalconcreteabstractsportal/m/details/id/14304 (accessed on 1 October 2024)
Choi M. Roussel N. Kim Y. Kim J. Lubrication layer properties during concrete pumping Cem. Concr. Res. 2013 45 69 78 10.1016/j.cemconres.2012.11.001
de Miranda L.R.M. Jovanović B. Lesage K. De Schutter G. Geometric Conformability of 3D Concrete Printing Mixtures from a Rheological Perspective Materials 2023 16 6864 10.3390/ma16216864
Rehman A.U. Kim J.-H. 3D Concrete Printing: A Systematic Review of Rheology, Mix Designs, Mechanical, Microstructural, and Durability Characteristics Materials 2021 14 3800 10.3390/ma14143800 34300719
Yang L. Sepasgozar S.M.E. Shirowzhan S. Kashani A. Edwards D. Nozzle criteria for enhancing extrudability, buildability and interlayer bonding in 3D printing concrete Autom. Constr. 2023 146 104671 10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104671
Andrew Ting G.H. Noel Quah T.K. Lim J.H. Daniel Tay Y.W. Tan M.J. Extrudable region parametrical study of 3D printable concrete using recycled glass concrete J. Build. Eng. 2022 50 104091 10.1016/j.jobe.2022.104091
Muthukrishnan S. Ramakrishnan S. Sanjayan J. Technologies for improving buildability in 3D concrete printing Cem. Concr. Compos. 2021 122 104144 10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2021.104144
Yuan Q. Li Z. Zhou D. Huang T. Huang H. Jiao D. Shi C. A feasible method for measuring the buildability of fresh 3D printing mortar Constr. Build. Mater. 2019 227 116600 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.07.326
Panda B. Paul S.C. Mohamed N.A.N. Tay Y.W.D. Tan M.J. Measurement of tensile bond strength of 3D printed geopolymer mortar Measurement 2018 113 108 116 10.1016/j.measurement.2017.08.051
Le T.T. Austin S.A. Lim S. Buswell R.A. Law R. Gibb A.G.F. Thorpe T. Hardened properties of high-performance printing concrete Cem. Concr. Res. 2012 42 558 566 10.1016/j.cemconres.2011.12.003
Wolfs R.J.M. Bos F.P. Salet T.A.M. Hardened properties of 3D printed concrete: The influence of process parameters on interlayer adhesion Cem. Concr. Res. 2019 119 132 140 10.1016/j.cemconres.2019.02.017
Roussel N. Rheological requirements for printable concretes Cem. Concr. Res. 2018 112 76 85 10.1016/j.cemconres.2018.04.005
Panda B. Noor Mohamed N.A. Paul S.C. Bhagath Singh G.V.P. Tan M.J. Šavija B. The Effect of Material Fresh Properties and Process Parameters on Buildability and Interlayer Adhesion of 3D Printed Concrete Materials 2019 12 2149 10.3390/ma12132149
Tay Y.W.D. Ting G.H.A. Qian Y. Panda B. He L. Tan M.J. Time gap effect on bond strength of 3D-printed concrete Virtual Phys. Prototyp. 2019 14 104 113 10.1080/17452759.2018.1500420
Lu B. Weng Y. Li M. Qian Y. Leong K.F. Tan M.J. Qian S. A systematical review of 3D printable cementitious materials Constr. Build. Mater. 2019 207 477 490 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.02.144
Perrot A. Rangeard D. 3D Printing in Concrete: Techniques for Extrusion/Casting 3D Printing of Concrete John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Hoboken, NJ, USA 2019 41 72 10.1002/9781119610755.ch2 978-1-119-61075-5
Soltan D.G. Li V.C. A self-reinforced cementitious composite for building-scale 3D printing Cem. Concr. Compos. 2018 90 1 13 10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2018.03.017
Jeong H. Han S.-J. Choi S.-H. Lee Y.J. Yi S.T. Kim K.S. Rheological Property Criteria for Buildable 3D Printing Concrete Materials 2019 12 657 10.3390/ma12040657 30795642
Moeini M.A. Hosseinpoor M. Yahia A. Effectiveness of the rheometric methods to evaluate the build-up of cementitious mortars used for 3D printing Constr. Build. Mater. 2020 257 119551 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.119551
Zhang Y. Zhang Y. She W. Yang L. Liu G. Yang Y. Rheological and harden properties of the high-thixotropy 3D printing concrete Constr. Build. Mater. 2019 201 278 285 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.12.061
Nair S.A.O. Panda S. Santhanam M. Sant G. Neithalath N. A critical examination of the influence of material characteristics and extruder geometry on 3D printing of cementitious binders Cem. Concr. Compos. 2020 112 103671 10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2020.103671
Jayathilakage R. Sanjayan J. Rajeev P. Comparison of Rheology Measurement Techniques Used in 3D Concrete Printing Applications ICSECM 2019: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Structural Engineering and Construction Management Springer Singapore 2019 10.1007/978-981-15-7222-7_23
Tran M.V. Cu Y.T.H. Le C.V.H. Rheology and shrinkage of concrete using polypropylene fiber for 3D concrete printing J. Build. Eng. 2021 44 103400 10.1016/j.jobe.2021.103400
EN 206:2013 Concrete—Specification, Performance, Production, and Conformity European Committee for Standardization (CEN) Brussels, Belgium 2013
EN 13395-1:2002 Products and Systems for the Protection and Repair of Concrete Structures—Test Methods—Determination of Workability—Part 1: Test for Flow of Thixotropic Mortars European Committee for Standardization (CEN) Brussels, Belgium 2002
EN 12350-9:2010 Testing Fresh Concrete—Part 9: Self-Compacting Concrete—V-Funnel Test European Committee for Standardization (CEN) Brussels, Belgium 2010
BS 1377-2:1990 Methods of Test for Soils for Civil Engineering Purposes—Part 2: Classification Tests British Standards Institution (BSI) London, UK 1990
Zhang C. Nerella V.N. Krishna A. Wang S. Zhang Y. Mechtcherine V. Banthia N. Mix design concepts for 3D printable concrete: A review Cem. Concr. Compos. 2021 122 104155 10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2021.104155
Heirman G. Vandewalle L. Van Gemert D. Wallevik Ó. Integration approach of the Couette inverse problem of powder type self-compacting concrete in a wide-gap concentric cylinder rheometer J. Non-Newton. Fluid Mech. 2008 150 93 103 10.1016/j.jnnfm.2007.10.003
Nehdi M. Rahman M.-A. Effect of geometry and surface friction of test accessory on oscillatory rheological properties of cement pastes ACI Mater. J. 2004 101 416 424
Chen M. Liu B. Li L. Cao L. Huang Y. Wang S. Zhao P. Lu L. Cheng X. Rheological parameters, thixotropy and creep of 3D-printed calcium sulfoaluminate cement composites modified by bentonite Compos. Part B Eng. 2020 186 107821 10.1016/j.compositesb.2020.107821
Weng Y. Lu B. Li M. Liu Z. Tan M.J. Qian S. Empirical models to predict rheological properties of fiber reinforced cementitious composites for 3D printing Constr. Build. Mater. 2018 189 676 685 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.09.039
Chen M. Yang L. Zheng Y. Huang Y. Li L. Zhao P. Wang S. Lu L. Cheng X. Yield stress and thixotropy control of 3D-printed calcium sulfoaluminate cement composites with metakaolin related to structural build-up Constr. Build. Mater. 2020 252 119090 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.119090
Wang Y. Jiang Y. Pan T. Yin K. The Synergistic Effect of Ester-Ether Copolymerization Thixo-Tropic Superplasticizer and Nano-Clay on the Buildability of 3D Printable Cementitious Materials Materials 2021 14 4622 10.3390/ma14164622
Zhang C. Deng Z. Chen C. Zhang Y. Mechtcherine V. Sun Z. Predicting the static yield stress of 3D printable concrete based on flowability of paste and thickness of excess paste layer Cem. Concr. Compos. 2022 129 104494 10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2022.104494
Gao Y. Hua S. Yue H. Study on Preparation and Rheological Properties of 3D Printed Pre-Foaming Concrete Appl. Sci. 2023 13 5303 10.3390/app13095303
Panda B. Tan M.J. Experimental study on mix proportion and fresh properties of fly ash based geopolymer for 3D concrete printing Ceram. Int. 2018 44 10258 10265 10.1016/j.ceramint.2018.03.031
Lipscomb G.G. Denn M.M. Flow of bingham fluids in complex geometries J. Non-Newton. Fluid Mech. 1984 14 337 346 10.1016/0377-0257(84)80052-X
Şahin H.G. Mardani-Aghabaglou A. Assessment of materials, design parameters and some properties of 3D printing concrete mixtures; a state-of-the-art review Constr. Build. Mater. 2022 316 125865 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.125865
Jayathilakage R. Rajeev P. Sanjayan J.G. Yield stress criteria to assess the buildability of 3D concrete printing Constr. Build. Mater. 2020 240 117989 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.117989
Rehman A.U. Kim I.-G. Kim J.-H. Towards full automation in 3D concrete printing construction: Development of an automated and inline sensor-printer integrated instrument for in-situ assessment of structural build-up and quality of concrete Dev. Built Environ. 2024 17 100344 10.1016/j.dibe.2024.100344
Hou S. Duan Z. Xiao J. Ye J. A review of 3D printed concrete: Performance requirements, testing measurements and mix design Constr. Build. Mater. 2021 273 121745 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.121745
Wolfs R.J.M. Bos F.P. Salet T.A.M. Triaxial compression testing on early age concrete for numerical analysis of 3D concrete printing Cem. Concr. Compos. 2019 104 103344 10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2019.103344
Ding T. Xiao J. Qin F. Duan Z. Mechanical behavior of 3D printed mortar with recycled sand at early ages Constr. Build. Mater. 2020 248 118654 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.118654
Wolfs R.J.M. Bos F.P. Salet T.A.M. Early age mechanical behaviour of 3D printed concrete: Numerical modelling and experimental testing Cem. Concr. Res. 2018 106 103 116 10.1016/j.cemconres.2018.02.001