Rheology and printability of engineered cementitious composites - A literature review

Additive Manufacturing (AM), normally known as 3 Dimensional Printing (3DP), is one of many manufacturing processes in the field of Rapid Prototyping (RP). In 3DP process, the solid part is built by adding layers of materials sequentially. Compared to traditional manufacturing technologies, 3DP has attracted more and more attention in many fields, including building and construction, attributed to its advantages such as greater flexibility on constructing geometrically complicated structures, greatly improved efficiency, reduced onsite labor requirement and less waste generated. Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) is a cementitious composite material reinforced with randomly distributed short fibers. It has great potential to be used in building and construction as well as 3D printing field due to its unique mechanical properties. Rheological property is an essential parameter affecting the printability of ECC during printing process. This article surveys the literatures on ECC, followed by a brief introduction of developments in 3DP field. The methods to improve the rheological property of ECC are discussed thereafter. In the last section, challenges on ECC printing are discussed from aspects of rheology control and printability.