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Controlling the rheological properties of cement for a submillimetre-thin shell structure

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Abstract

Thin shells are widely used in structural design and developing lightweight high-performance materials and composites. A fluid coating-assisted additive manufacturing method proposed in the literature shows great potential in fabricating lightweight composites using shell-like framework architectures. However, understanding the fabrication of thin shells by controlling the fluid rheology for a submillimeter-thin coating is still limited. As a demonstration, we investigated the effect of surface tension and yield stress of cement paste on the spreading and stabilisation on a curved honeycomb scaffold to form a thin-shell structure via a lattice-Boltzmann method simulation. We found the coating of cement paste is governed by the coupling effect of surface tension (γ) and yield stress (σy), which not only controls the stability but also affects its geometry. The optimal ranges of γ and σy were determined and their correlation was derived as a design guideline for future development of this cementitious thin-shell structure. As well, equivalent microscale rheological parameters (γ = 0.015 N/m and σy = 3.42 Pa) were identified. This study improves our understanding of the fabrication of high-performance cementitious shells and sheds light on the fabrication of submillimetre-thin shells using a wide range of materials.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the financial support of the Australian Research Council (IH150100006) in conducting this study. Dr Shujian Chen is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Award (DE170100604) funded by the Australian Government. The authors acknowledge the use of facilities within the Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy. This work was performed in part at the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN) in the Victorian Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia

    Wei Wang, Brandon Gerber, Jia Zie Lai, Kwesi Sagoe-Crentsil & Wenhui Duan

  2. School of Civil Engineering, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Shu Jian Chen

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  1. Wei Wang
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Contributions

WW, SJC and WD conceived the study and designed the simulation. WW, SJC and BG conducted the simulation. WW analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. SJC, JZL, WD and KS-C assisted in evaluating the results, writing the discussion, and editing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Shu Jian Chen or Wenhui Duan.

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Wang, W., Gerber, B., Lai, J.Z. et al. Controlling the rheological properties of cement for a submillimetre-thin shell structure. Mater Struct 54, 141 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-021-01735-5

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