Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Jul 15;18(14):3327.
doi: 10.3390/ma18143327.

Exploring the 3D Printability of Engineered Cementitious Composites with Internal Curing for Resilient Construction in Arid Regions

Tayyab Zafar  1 , Muhammad Saeed Zafar  1 , Maryam Hojati  1
Affiliations

Exploring the 3D Printability of Engineered Cementitious Composites with Internal Curing for Resilient Construction in Arid Regions

Tayyab Zafar et al. Materials (Basel). .

Abstract

This study investigates the feasibility of pumice-based internal curing based on the 3D printability of engineered cementitious composites (ECCs) for water-scarce environments and arid regions. Natural river sand was partially replaced with the presoaked pumice lightweight aggregates (LWAs) at two different levels, 30% and 60% by volume, and 50% of the cement was replaced with slag to enhance sustainability. Furthermore, 2% polyethylene (PE) fibers were used to improve the mechanical characteristics and 1% methylcellulose (MC) was used to increase the rheological stability. Pumice aggregates, presoaked for 24 h, were used as an internal curing agent to assess their effect on the printability. Three ECC mixes, CT-PE2-6-10 (control), P30-PE2-6-10 (30% pumice), and P60-PE2-6-10 (60% pumice), were printed using a 3D gantry printing system. A flow table and rheometer were used to evaluate the flowability and rheological properties. Extrudability was measured in terms of dimensional consistency and the coefficient of variation (CV%) to evaluate printability, whereas buildability was determined in terms of the maximum number of layers stacked before failure. All of the mixes met the extrudability criterion (CV < 5%), with P30-PE2-6-10 demonstrating superior printing quality and buildability, having 16 layers, which was comparable with the control mix that had 18 layers.

Keywords: 3D-printed concrete (3DPC); engineered cementitious composites (ECCs); internal curing; lightweight aggregates (LWAs); printability; pumice; sustainability in construction.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The gradation curves of the river sand (RS) and its blends with pumice.
Figure 2
Figure 2
SEM micrographs of river sand (a–c), pumice 3 (d–f), and pumice 4 (g–i) at different magnifications.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Schematic of the mixing and printing of ECCs.
Figure 4
Figure 4
(a) Brookfield rheometer; (b) gap settings; (c) shear profile.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Bingham model illustrating various rheological parameters.
Figure 6
Figure 6
A 3D printer system and its integrated subsystems; “reproduced from Bhusal et al., 2023 licensed under CC BY 4.0 [38].
Figure 7
Figure 7
The extrudability test printing path for different printing speeds.
Figure 8
Figure 8
The buildability evaluation by 3D printing the wall.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Flowability of plain and ECC mixes.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Static yield stress of plain and ECC mixes.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Dynamic yield stress of plain and ECC mixes.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Plastic viscosity of plain and ECC mixes.
Figure 13
Figure 13
Extrudability of ECC mixes CT-PE2-6-10, P30-PE2-6-10, P60-PE2-6-10, and CT-PE2-10.
Figure 14
Figure 14
Extrudability of ECC mixes based on the coefficient of variation of filament width and thickness.
Figure 15
Figure 15
Buildability evaluation of ECC mixes CT-PE2-6-10, P30-PE2-6-10, P60-PE2-6-10, and CT-PE2-10.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Panda B., Tan M.J. Rheological behavior of high volume fly ash mixtures containing micro silica for digital construction application. Mater. Lett. 2019;237:348–351. doi: 10.1016/j.matlet.2018.11.131. - DOI
    1. Gomaa S., Irizarry E.M., Ahmed A., Rosa R.M., Ahmed H., Burroughs J., Kreiger E., Liu J., Troemner M., Cusatis G. 3D printing of ultra-high-performance concrete: Shape stability for various printing systems. Constr. Build. Mater. 2024;456:139039. doi: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2024.139039. - DOI
    1. Moelich G.M., Kruger J., Combrinck R. Plastic shrinkage cracking in 3D printed concrete. Compos. Part B Eng. 2020;200:108313. doi: 10.1016/j.compositesb.2020.108313. - DOI
    1. Van Der Putten J., Snoeck D., De Coensel R., De Schutter G., Van Tittelboom K. Early age shrinkage phenomena of 3D printed cementitious materials with superabsorbent polymers. J. Build. Eng. 2021;35:102059. doi: 10.1016/j.jobe.2020.102059. - DOI
    1. Uno P.J. Plastic Shrinkage Cracking and Evaporation Formulas. 1998. [(accessed on 1 April 2025)]. Available online: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260209439.

LinkOut - more resources