Impact of Water to Solids Ratio on Stability, Printability, and Mechanical Characteristics of 3D Printable Foam Concrete

Foam stability plays a major role in designing foam concrete mix amenable for 3D printing. Unlike conventional foam concrete, 3D printable foam concrete demands different rheological behaviour to meet the printability criteria. The literature emphasizes the need to understand the impact of the water-to-solids ratio (W/S) on the stability and printability of 3D-printed foam concrete. Therefore, an experimental study is conducted on the influence of W/S (0.15 to 0.3) for 3D printing foam concrete of design densities 1300 and 1000 kg/m3. The impact of W/S with and without the use of a superplasticizer is examined on the fresh and mechanical properties of 3DP-FC. Results showed that the optimization of W/S was critical for attaining better stability and printability of 3DP-FC. The W/S has a considerable impact on the mechanical characteristics of 3D-printed foam concrete.