High toughness 3D printed white Portland cement-based materials with glass fiber textile

Abstract 3D printing technology for cement-based materials recently provides an emerging preparation style in construction industry benefited from the rapid prototyping and construction freedom. However, due to the poor toughness of 3D printed cementitious materials, the further application of 3D printing technology in architectural decoration and construction field is limited. In this study, the glass fiber textiles (GFT, with the size of 5 mm × 5 mm) were introduced to improve the toughness of 3D printed white Portland cement-based materials (WPCMs) after printing one or several layers. The results showed that the addition of GFT significantly improved the toughness of the printed specimens, the flexural strength increased by 608%, and when the number of GFT increased to 7, the fracture deflection increased by 1437%. In conclusion, the use of GFT presents a potential to develop high toughness in 3D printed WPCMs.