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A Review of 3D Printable Construction Materials and

Title Applications

Author(s) Lu, Bing; Tan, Ming Jen; Qian, Shun Zhi

Lu, B., Tan, M. J., & Qian, S. Z. (2016). A Review of 3D

Printable Construction Materials and Applications.
Citation Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on
Progress in Additive Manufacturing (Pro-AM 2016), 330-
335.

Date 2016

URL http://hdl.handle.net/10220/41815

© 2016 by Pro-AM 2016 Organizers. Published by

Rights Research Publishing, Singapore
 g ( )

A REVIEW OF 3D PRINTABLE CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS AND

APPLICATIONS
BING LU
Singapore Centre for 3D Printing and School of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore

MING JEN TAN

Singapore Centre for 3D Printing, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering,
Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore

SHUNZHI QIAN
Singapore Centre for 3D Printing and School of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore

ABSTRACT: 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is a technology using a layer-

by-layer process to build three-dimensional objects. The developments of 3D printing in building
and construction have seen great potentials during the recent years. Although this technology is
still considered at its initial stage, its potential benefits such as quicker construction, low labor
costs and less waste produced make it one of the most promising building technology in the future.
This article surveys the researches and developments on 3D printable construction materials with
corresponding 3D printing technologies to date. Fresh property requirements for 3D printable
materials are discussed with the insights from sprayable and extrudable materials, followed by the
discussion on hardened properties of structures printed with cementitious materials. The article
also reviews various engineering applications of 3D printing recently emerged in building and
construction sector. At last, the article hypothesizes the future developments of 3D printing for
building and construction based on the reviews on plausible 3D printable materials and structural
applications. The challenges from material and structural aspects are discussed in detail, followed
by the potential applications of new functional materials. It is also possible to integrate the
Building Information Modeling (BIM) and 3D printing in tomorrow’s building and construction
field for greater construction productivity, and the article will point out the feasibility and potential
advantages of this combination.
KEY WORDS: 3D printing, construction material, structural property, engineering application,
functional material.

1. INTRODUCTION

3D printing refers to an automated additive manufacturing process to create objects from

digital models (Bogue, 2013). Compared with traditional manufacturing technology, 3D printing
has high design flexibility and manufacturing efficiency with relatively low cost (Gao et al., 2015).
In the past decades, the development of 3D printing is very fast and wide applications have been
successfully achieved in many fields. Recently, this technology has been expanded to building and
construction, with potential advantages include quicker construction, lower labor costs, and less
waste produced (Wikipedia, 2015).

Proc. of the 2nd Intl. Conf. on Progress in Additive Manufacturing

Edited by Chee Kai Chua, Wai Yee Yeong, Ming Jen Tan, Erjia Liu and Shu Beng Tor
Copyright © 2016 by Pro-AM 2016 Organizers.
Published by Research Publishing, Singapore
ISSN: 2424-8967 330
 Proc. of the 2nd Intl. Conf. on Progress in Additive Manufacturing

The following sections of the article review the development of 3D printable construction
materials and their potential engineering applications. Major large-scale 3D printing technologies
are briefly introduced. The article discusses on the fresh property requirements of 3D printable
construction materials with the insights from similar conventional construction materials. The
hardened properties of 3D printed structures are also surveyed, followed by various engineering
applications in the recent years. Future research directions of 3D printing in building and
construction are envisaged, including challenges and potential applications.

2. MAJOR 3D PRINTING TECHNOLOGIES IN BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION

Contour Crafting and 3D Concrete Printing are the successful practices of cementitious
material printing system. Contour Crafting combines an extrusion process to form object surfaces
and a filling process to build the object core in layered fashion (Khoshnevis, 2004). In the printing
process, the rim of the structure is printed out first to form a closed section for a layer. Then the
printing nozzle is lifted up to print another layer at the top of previous layer. At the end of printing
process, fillers such as concrete may be filled in the closed section if needed (See Figure 1(a)). 3D
Concrete Printing is also based on extrusion of cement mortar. Compared with Contour Crafting, it
has a smaller resolution and ability to retain 3-dimensional freedom for better control when
printing (Lim et al., 2012). However, 3D Concrete Printing lacks the surface-scraping so the
structure has an obvious layered appearance (See Figure 1(b)).

(a) Structures printed by Contour Crafting (b) Structure printed by 3D Concrete Printing
Figure 1. Structures printed by Contour Crafting (Khoshnevis, 2004) and 3D Concrete Printing
(Lim, et al., 2011)

Different from Contour Crafting and 3D Concrete Printing, another major large-scale printing
technology D-Shape adds thin layers of binder to stone aggregates at predetermined slices (D-
Shape, 2016). In the printing process, material is laid to the desired thickness and compacted,
followed by the deposition of the binder to where the part is to be solid (Lim et al., 2012).

3. MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF 3D PRINTABLE CONSTUCTION MATERIALS

3.1 Fresh property requirements and insights from similar construction materials
In 3D printing, the structures are manufactured through a distinctive layer-by-layer process. It
is noticed that each of the three major large-scale printing technologies does not need external
mould or formwork. Hence, the printed layers should have enough strength to support the weight
of itself, rather than dissipating the pressure to the side-formworks in conventional constructions.
To meet this requirement, the printable construction material should set and harden very quickly
after printed. In other words, the viscosity of printable construction material should reach a high
level once the material leaves the printing nozzle. On the other hand, the viscosity of printable

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construction material should be kept at a relatively low level before printing to avoid the blockage
inside the delivery hose or the printing nozzle. In addition, the printable construction material must
possess enough adherence to assure the integrity of printed structure and alleviate the influence of
weak bond resulted by layer-by-layer manufacturing process.

There are some similarities between sprayable construction material and 3D printable
construction material, and the insight from sprayable material may provide a possible solution to
achieve the requirements of 3D printable construction material. Shotcrete is one of the most used
sprayable construction materials. In conventional construction, shotcrete is conveyed through a
hose then pneumatically projected and gradually built up on a backup surface or substrate (Neville,
2002). The requirements of high performance shotcrete include relatively high very-early-strength,
easy to be delivered through the hose and enough adherence to the substrate. However, the coarse
aggregates used in normal shotcrete may not be used in the printable materials due to the limitation
of nozzle size and requirement of printing resolution. In addition, shotcrete needs substrate while
no external formwork is needed in 3D printing. With a high projected speed, shotcrete have
rebounds, which should be avoided in 3D printing. So shotcrete must be modified to make it
printable.

One of the key points in the design of high performance shotcrete is to achieve different
rheological performances in pre-spraying stage and post-spraying stage effectively. In addition to
the control of water/cement ratio, aggregate gradings are also suggested in the practice (ACI
Committee 506, 1990). However, adjusting the gradings in the same way may not be suitable for
3D printing due to the lacking of coarse aggregates. Kim et al. (2003) proposed a solution through
the design of a wet-mix shotcrete without coarse aggregate by introducing high-range water-
reducing admixture (HRWRA) and hydroxypropyl methycellulose (HPMC). HRWRA serves as
static dispersant for low viscosity in the pre-spraying stage, and HPMC helps maintain the
cohesiveness. As Figure 2(a) shows, the viscosity increases as hydration continues, and the slight
addition of calcium aluminate cement (CA) helps generate a rapid increase in viscosity over time.
From the spray test, this shotcrete has great adherence (See Figure 2(b)) and high very-early-
strength. The admixtures used in this shotcrete can be borrowed in the design of 3D printable
construction materials, while CA should be substituted by other similar rapid-hardening materials
due to its long-term strength decreasing effect (Odler, 2000).

(a) The change in viscosity over time with different proportions of CA and ordinary cement
(b) Spray test of shotcrete in the vertical direction
Figure 2. The rheological control and spray performance of shotcrete designed by Kim et al. (2003)

In addition to sprayable materials, extrudable materials can also provide insights for potential
mix design of 3D printable construction materials. Currently the cementitious material printing
system is mainly based on the extrusion process of cement-based mortar. In extrudable materials,

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the viscosity should be kept at a low level initially for better extrusion while increases rapidly after
a certain time, which is referred as open time. Le et al. (2012) proposed a mix design of 3D
printable concrete. In the mix design, the dosages of superplasticizer and retarder are carefully
weighed considering the initial extrudability and open time. The mix is proved to build a certain
numbers of layers without causing blockage in the nozzle or fracture in the printed layers.

It is also possible to improve the performance of printable concrete based on modified self-
compacting concrete. The maximum layers the printable concrete can build is related to the green
strength of this material as high green strength represents less deformation under mechanical
operations or pressure in the fresh state. It is found that (Voigt et al., 2010) by adding fibers or clay,
the green strength can be efficiently increased, especially for the clay composed of purified
magnesium alumino silicate. The addition of fibers improves the workability while clay decreases
the workability, which can be balanced by careful mix design.

3.2 Mechanical properties of 3D printable construction materials

The printed structures have obvious anisotropic mechanical behavior. Through mechanical
experiments (Feng et al., 2015; Le et al., 2012), it is found that whenever the loading causes
tension between the printed layers, the strength of printed structure is greatly reduced in any type
of mechanical experiments. In comparison, the strength of printed structure is measured the
highest whenever the loading causes tension parallel to the printed layers. This anisotropic
mechanical behavior is considered to have a direct relationship with the layer-by-layer
manufacturing feature, and lack of enough bond between layers leads to weak zones in the printed
structures. Potential improvements in the bond strength include reducing the printing time between
adjacent layers and adding fibers (Le et al., 2012; Christ et al., 2015). In the cementitious material
printing, brittleness is clearly observed as in the conventional concrete, which may be addressed
by adding fibers.

4. ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS

3D printing in building and construction is fast evolving and lots of engineering applications
emerges recently. With the help of 3D printing, rapid construction is realized with considerably
lower cost, less waste and reduced construction time (CNET, 2015). It is possible to print specially
designed functional structures, which may be energy-efficient and environment-friendly.

One of the most important applications of 3D printing in building and construction is to make
large-scale rapid construction. A Chinese company Winsun has constructed 10 houses using 3D
printing technology in one day, where recycled construction materials were used in the 3D printing
(Business Insider Singapore, 2014). Researchers from University of California, Berkeley have
built an artsy pavilion through 3D printing (Engadget, 2015) for decorative use. The pavilion was
created using dry powdered cement, which cannot be extruded through a nozzle like wet cement.
In Amsterdam, the Netherlands, researchers are aiming at building a 3D printed steel pedestrian
bridge (3dprint.com, 2015) to bear the traffic loading. This steel-printing system uses 6-axis
robotic machines to create structures from steel literally in mid-air.

Besides large-scale rapid constructions, it is possible to construct more complicated

functional structures by 3D printing. Cool Brick (Emerging Objects, 2015) is aimed at cooling the
room temperature naturally. With its porous 3D printed structure, Cool Brick can easily retain
rainwater and let the air flow at the same time, resulting in air-cooling effect by the evaporation of

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water. This can save the energy for air-conditioning, especially in hot and dry area. The Involute
Wall (Emerging Objects, 2016) is constructed by 3D printing technology, and it can serve the
purpose of dampening sound and heat. The involuted surfaces reduce resonance in the room, by
absorption and redirection of sound waves. It can also serve as thermal mass while keeping much
of the wall in shade, which is ideal for hot climates with extreme temperature shifts.

5. FUTURE PERSPECTIVE

While it is possible to achieve desirable rheological performance of printable material during

different stage, however, the balance between long open time and high green strength should be
carefully considered. Once printed, the material should harden rapidly to resist weight of the layers.
However, this may lead to considerable differences in status of adjacent layers with lower
adherence between layers, leading to lower bonding strength.

The development of functional construction materials can also be a future focus in 3D

printing. For example, self-healing construction material can seal and heal the cracks by itself,
which has the potential to improve the durability of the printed structures. Thermal-insulating
construction materials can help reduce the heat transmission and save the energy used in regulating
indoor temperature. Due to the freedom offered by 3D printing process, the creation of parts with
functionally graded materials is possible (Gao et al., 2015). This multi-material printing can be
borrowed in building and construction sector to print laminated multi-functional structure.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an inherently 3D modelling technology and

associated set of processes to produce, communicate and analyze building models (Eastman et al.,
2011). BIM can improve the collective understanding of design intent and overall project quality.
It is possible to integrate BIM and 3D printing technology in the construction. Through the
complicated geometry and structure details, provided by BIM, large-scale 3D printers can print the
designed building with accurate mechanical controls. Hence, automated construction can be
realized with the combination of advantages from BIM and 3D printing.

6. CONCLUSION

This article reviews 3D printable construction materials and their applications. Fresh property
requirements of 3D printable construction materials are addressed in detail, and potential mixes to
meet these requirements are discussed. Hardened properties of 3D printable construction materials
are stated, followed by engineering applications from large-scale rapid constructions to 3D printed
functional structures. At last, future challenges and potential research focuses of 3D printing in
building and construction are addressed. The applications of functional construction materials are
highlighted with the discussion of potential integration of inherently 3D BIM and 3D printing.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank for National Research Foundation.

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