Rheology and Structural Rebuilding of One-Part Geopolymer Mortar in the Context of 3D Concrete Printing

Abstract

The employment of automation in construction has not yet reached its full potential. 3D concrete printing is one of the promising construction techniques which has drawn a lot of attention due to its unique benefit in terms of higher productivity, faster construction processes, geometrical freedom, and cost-efficiency. With the number of 3D printing projects increasing rapidly, the demand for accurate measurement of concrete fresh property is also increasing. Therefore, in this paper rheology and structural rebuilding properties are investigated to understand printability and buildability attributes of one-part geopolymer mixtures. A custom made geopolymer binder was designed for extrusion-based 3D printing and the fresh geopolymer was tested in different resting time to reveal the structural rebuilding property via measurement of compressive green strength. The material test result shows that the green strength increases with fresh concrete age, as does the static yield strength.