Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734

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Materials & Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

Flexural properties of 3D printed graded lattice reinforced cementitious

composites using digital image correlation
Can Tang a,b, Junwei Liu b, Wenfeng Hao c,⇑, Yuanyuan Wei c
a
College of Civil Science and Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu 225127, China
b
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212013, China
c
College of Mechanical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, Jiangsu 225127, China

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

The failure behavior of 3D-printed

lattice-reinforced cement-based
materials is found to change from
brittle fracture to ductile failure.

3D-printed PA6 lattice-reinforced
cementitious composite cannot
significantly improve the cracking
load of the cementitious matrix.

3D-printed graded lattice is used to
strengthen the cement mortar, thus
realizing the multiple cracking of the
cementitious matrix.

The preparation method of the
functionally graded lattice structure
uses fewer materials and can improve
the flexural bearing capacity and
ductility of the cementitious matrix.

The weak interfacial adhesion
between the 3D-printed polymer and
cement-based materials is a problem
that must be solved in subsequent
research.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Three-dimensional (3D) printed polymer-reinforced cementitious composites are expected to be used to
Received 24 October 2022 improve the ductility of cement-based materials. However, research on the maximum flexural capacity
Revised 6 February 2023 and failure mode of lattice-reinforced cementitious composites remains insufficient. In this study, six
Accepted 11 February 2023
types of cells with different volume fractions are designed, and mainly undergo bending and tensile
Available online 13 February 2023
deformation. According to the load characteristics during a three-point bending test, five kinds of graded
lattice structures are designed. Moreover, a skin-lattice structure and uniform lattice structure are
Keywords:
designed, and plain cement mortar is set to comprehensively evaluate the bending mechanical properties
3D printing
Cement-based materials
of graded lattice-reinforced cementitious composites. The crack evolution and failure mode of these com-
Graded lattice reinforcement posites under three-point bending load are studied using digital image correlation (DIC). The results show
Digital image correlation (DIC) that compared with the uniform lattice, the graded lattice can improve the maximum bending capacity of
Flexural property cement-based materials, improve their cracking characteristics and failure modes during the bending
process, and enhance their toughness while reducing the amount of required material. Compared with

⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: hwf@yzu.edu.cn (W. Hao).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2023.111734
0264-1275/Ó 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al. Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734

the plain cement mortar specimen, the graded lattice-reinforced specimen with the largest bending peak
load is found to have a 175% increase in the bending peak load and a significant increase in the bending
bearing capacity.
Ó 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction Fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) RC has been a popular research

Because of their high compressive strength, cement-based
materials have become the most widely used building materials
in the field of civil engineering. However, cement-based materials
have defects including low tensile strength, susceptibility to crack-
ing, and high brittleness [1,2]. These defects make it impossible to
use cement-based materials alone to resist tensile load in engi-
neering. In engineering applications, steel bars with high plasticity
and high tensile strength are combined with cement materials to
make reinforced concrete (RC) structural members [3,4]. According
to the calculated load of the building structure design, more steel
bars are arranged in the areas of the member with high tensile
and shear stress to resist the load and limit the generation and
extension of cracks. However, RC structures are characterized by
a fatal disadvantage, namely that the steel bars easily rust in corro-
sive environments. The corrosion of the reinforcement will lead to
the increase of the reinforcement volume and the generation of
stress and cracks caused by internal expansion; this intensifies
the ability of corrosive substances to enter the concrete, which will
aggravate the corrosion of the reinforcement, thus causing a
vicious cycle and ultimately leading to the failure of RC members
[5–9].
direction in recent years. FRP bars are considered a new material
that can solve the problem of reinforcement corrosion due to their
high tensile strength and corrosion resistance [10–12]. However,
the bond performance of FRP bars is low [13], and they can easily
experience sudden tensile fracture [14,15]. Moreover, the working
deflection is larger than that of RC members with the same rein-
forcement rate and the cracks are wider [16–18], which limits
the development of FRP bars.
To solve the problems of the brittleness, cracking, and poor ten-
sile properties of cement-based materials, many scholars have
devoted their attention to the field of three-dimensional (3D)
printing (additive manufacturing). Additive manufacturing has
many advantages, such as a wide selection of materials, the high
utilization rate of materials, and customizability, and can be used
to manufacture complex parts [19–21]. The parts and components
prepared by the existing additive manufacturing technology are
almost isotropic, and metal parts and components can be directly
printed [22–23]. Polymer reinforcements prepared by 3D printing
can be deployed in a cement-based material to create a strain-
hardening (flexural) cementitious composite [24–26], which can
significantly improve the inherent brittleness of the material. Far-
ina et al. [23] studied the mechanical properties of 3D-printed

Fig. 1. The elements of the unit cell.

2
C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al.
polymer/metal-reinforced cement mortar with different rough-
nesses under three-point bending load. Nam et al. [26] studied
the three-point bending mechanical properties of fiber-reinforced
cement mortar controlled by 3D printing with different spatial dis-
tribution types. Rosewitz et al. [27] studied the mechanical proper-
ties of a 3D bionic polymer building structure made of reinforced
cement mortar composites with different geometric structures
under four-point bending load. Salazar et al. [25] studied the
mechanical properties of 3D-printed polymer lattice-reinforced
ultra-high-performance cement-based materials under four-point
bending load, and successfully transformed the cement-based
materials into ductile materials with strain-hardening behavior.
Xu et al. [28] studied the mechanical properties of 3D-printed
polymer lattice-reinforced cement-based materials with different
structures under four-point bending load, and prepared cement-
based composites with flexural- or strain-hardening properties.
This research shows that 3D-printed polymer reinforcements can
improve the brittleness of cement-based materials, and can be
used for the preparation of ductile cementitious composites. More-
over, the graded design and customized printing of polymer rein-
forcements can be carried out in combination with the
mechanical characteristics of bending members and the technical
advantages of 3D printing. On the premise of using fewer raw
materials, lattice-reinforced cementitious composites can demon-
strate better mechanical properties. Ejeh et al. [33] carried out
four-point bending tests and finite element simulations of 3D-
printed AlSi10Mg uniform, functionally graded, and hybridized lat-
ticed beams. They studied the bending performance of the relative
density gradation and hybridization of the lattice on prominent
sheet-based, triply-periodic, cellular minimal surfaces. Feng et al.
Table 1
The basic parameters of the graded lattice unit cells.
Number Type of cell structure Volume Dimension line volume of cell outsourcing(mm3)
I 407.91 1000
II 352.85 1000
III 297.79 1000
IV 242.74 1000
V 207.88 1000
VI 82.93 1000
3
Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734
[34] proposed a method by which to optimize the automatic distri-
bution of multi-TPMS lattice types by selecting lattice unit cells
with maximum strain energy in combination with the lattice cell
database, and carried out numerical and experimental verification.
Nazir et al. [35] studied the mechanical responses of four different
lattice structure cantilever beams composed of Schwarz-P,
Schwarz-D, Gyroid, and Octet-truss structural unit cells manufac-
tured by Multi Jet Fusion 3D printing technology. These studies
demonstrate that it is feasible to use 3D printing technology to per-
form functional gradient forming on the lattice structure, and the
gradient lattice is characterized by a light weight and good
mechanical properties. In addition, Xu et al. [29] studied the flexu-
ral mechanical properties of cement-based materials reinforced by
3D-printed functional graded polymer octet lattice structures.
Compared with that of a plain mortar, the flexural ductility of
the strengthened specimens was found to be significantly
improved. However, the developed cementitious composite could
not obtain multiple cracking and strain-hardening behaviors, and
the maximum bending strength of the reinforced sample was not
improved as compared with the plain mortar. Therefore, the pre-
sent work focuses on improving the brittleness, improving the
maximum flexural capacity, and obtaining the multiple cracking
characteristics of cement-based materials under bending load.
In this study, five kinds of cells based on the cubic unit cell were
designed. These five kinds of cells had different structural forms,
deformation mechanisms (mainly tensile and bending deforma-
tion), and volume fractions. According to the stress and deforma-
tion characteristics of the three-point bending test, six kinds of
graded lattice structures were designed. The tests focused on the
differences between the mechanical properties of the plain cement
Relative density Constituent elements
40.79 % 1+2+3+4+5
35.29 % 2+3+4+5
29.78 % 3+4+5
24.27 % 4+5
20.79 % 1+2+4
8.29 % 4
C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al. Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734

mortar group, the full-section uniform lattice-reinforced group, the 2. Experimental methods
single-layer uniform lattice-reinforced group, the graded lattice-
reinforced group, and the lattice-reinforced group with skin. The 2.1. Graded lattice design
strain, crack evolution, and failure mode of eleven kinds of cement
specimens under three-point bending load were analyzed using To facilitate the assembly of unit cells and control the volume
digital image correlation (DIC). fraction, the lattice was close to the structural form of the steel

Fig. 2. The schematic diagrams of the distributions of the unit cells with different relative densities in the multi-lattice with five different structural forms. Note: (1) ‘‘4”
represents the two bottom supports loaded in advance. (2) ‘‘s” represents the preset loading head (loading point).

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C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al. Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734

Fig. 3. Examples of PA6 printed products made by the MJF process.

Table 2
The mix proportion of cement mortar.

Cement Fly ash Sand(0.08 mm-0.63 mm) Water reducer Water

1.2 0.8 3 0.006 0.994

Note: The cement was ordinary Portland cement PO 32.5 produced by Jiangsu Helin Cement Co., ltd., and the sand was Chinese ISO standard sand produced by Xiamen Aisiou
Standard Sand Co., ltd. Moreover, the fly ash was Grade I fly ash produced by Gongyi Bairun Refractory Materials Co., ltd., and the water reducer was a high-efficiency water
reducer produced by the Shandong Laiyang Hongxiang Building Additive Factory. The water was tap water from Zhenjiang, China.

reinforcement cage. The lattice cells used in this research were all
designed based on the cubic unit cell (as shown in Fig. 1(4)). In
addition, previous studies [30,32] have shown that the cubic unit
cell has a tensile deformation mechanism, while a body-centered
cubic (BCC) cell has a bending-dominant deformation mechanism.
The detailed information of the six cells designed in this study with
different structural forms is reported in Table 1, and the strut
diameter of all unit cells was 2 mm. The centerline size of each cell
was 10  10  10 mm3.
In the design of lattice cells, all elements shown in Fig. 1 were
used to assemble the unit cell with the largest volume fraction.
This type of cell is also called a BFVC cell [32], and its deformation
mechanism is dominated by bending deformation. The diagonal
brace of the left and right opposite faces of unit cell I was removed
to obtain unit cell II, the diagonal brace of the front and rear oppo-
site faces of unit cell II was removed to obtain unit cell III, and the
diagonal brace of the upper and lower opposite faces of unit cell III
was removed to obtain unit cell IV. Unit cell V was obtained by

5
C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al.
Fig. 4. The cement specimens formed and cured for 28 d (partial).
removing the internal BCC cell of unit cell I and the diagonal brace
of the upper and lower opposite planes.
Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software was used to establish
3D standard models of different structural forms of unit cells.
The volume fraction distribution diagram was designed according
to the bending moment distribution characteristics of three-point
bending, and the graded lattice structure was formed by assem-
bling cells in CAD. The single-layer graded lattice starts from the
middle of the span to arrange cell I with the largest volume frac-
tion, and a pair of cells with a smaller volume fraction was then
arranged on both sides. Considering the large concentrated force
at the two bottom supports, cell IV with a relatively small volume
fraction was not arranged at the two bottom supports, but cell II
was adopted. Finally, cell VI (which only played a structural and
positioning role in the specimen) was arranged in the stress-free
zone at the edges of both sides to form graded lattice B-1. On the
basis of the single-layer graded lattice B-1, two-layer graded lattice
B-4 and three-layer graded lattice B-5 were designed according to
Fig. 5. The diagrams of the loading and monitoring schemes.
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Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734
the law of the decreasing volume fraction. The purpose of this was
to investigate the influence of the number of layers of graded lat-
tices on the bending performance of the specimens. On the basis
of single-layer graded lattice B-1, different cells were arranged
along the line between the loading point and the two bottom sup-
ports to form two-layer (B-2) and three-layer (B-3) graded lattice
structures along the preset shear interface. The purpose of this
was to study the influence of the number of layers in the graded
lattice on the shear resistance of the specimen. The volume fraction
distributions of the five graded lattices assembled by six different
cells are shown in Fig. 2(f) and (j).
A uniform lattice composed of single cells with the smallest vol-
ume fraction was also set as a control group for comparison with
the graded lattice-reinforced group. This included lattice A-1 with
uniform cells arranged in the whole section and lattice A-2 with
uniform cells arranged in the bottom tensile zone. Skins of 2 and
4 mm, respectively, were added to the bottom of lattice A-2 to form
a lattice structure with skin. In the design, the stress in the middle
of the span may have been too large, so unit cell V with a larger
volume fraction was used to replace the four unit cells VI. To facil-
itate a comparative analysis, lattice A-3 was set as the transition
group. The plain cement mortar group without a lattice was set
when casting the cement-based specimen, which was also used
for comparison. The structural diagrams of the uniform lattice
and the lattice with skin composed of a single cell are shown in
Fig. 2(a)-(e).
2.2. Preparation of lattice and cement specimens
The lattice samples used in this study were prepared by multi
jet fusion (MJF) technology. MJF is a 3D printing technology in
which powder materials are used as the main molding materials,
onto which flux and refiner are sprayed, and energy is applied in
the molding area to melt the powder to achieve molding [30,31].
MJF printing technology has the advantages of high product qual-
ity, high dimensional accuracy, and a fast molding speed. The parts
manufactured by MJF technology are almost isotropic, and their
mechanical properties are almost unaffected by the construction
direction.
C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al. Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734

The raw material used for 3D printing technology in this study

was PA6, and Fig. 3 presents the lattice structure printed with PA6
as the molding material.
The mix proportion of cement mortar during the casting of
lattice-reinforced cementitious composite materials is reported in
Table 2.
The lattice-reinforced cementitious composite specimens were
cast according to the steps of weighing, sampling, feeding and mix-
ing, grouting, vibrating and compacting, and molding. They were
demolded 24 h after molding and placed in a standard curing
box for 28 d. Fig. 4 presents the specimens cured for 28 d under
standard curing conditions.

2.3. Experimental device and scheme

The experimental setup is shown in Figs. 5 and 6. A TH-8201S

Fig. 6. The test loading and DIC acquisition system. universal tester with a load capacity of 10 kN was used to carry
out three-point bending loading on the lattice-reinforced cement

Fig. 7. The force–displacement curves of all cement samples.

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C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al. Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734

Fig. 7 (continued)

8
C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al. Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734

3.1. Force-displacement curve analysis

Fig. 7 presents the force–displacement curves of the three-point

Fig. 7 (continued)
specimens at a loading rate of 0.1 mm/min, thus simulating quasi-
static loading.
DIC was used to monitor the full-field deformation of the spec-
imens, and the 2D-DIC system of the CSI Company (United States)
was used to calculate the images of the whole loading process. The
whole image acquisition system was supported by Weishi Digital
Image Technology Co., ltd. The hardware equipment consisted of
an MV-EM510M/C CCD camera, a BT-23120 telecentric lens, a light
source, and a bracket. The CCD camera had 5 million pixels with a
resolution of 2456  2058 pixels. The magnification of the telecen-
tric lens was 0.072. The image acquisition rate was set as 15
frames/second.
3. Analysis of the experimental results
Three-point bending tests were carried out on the 3D-printed
lattice-reinforced cement mortar specimens. There were three
groups of specimens with 10 different volume fractions of graded
lattice/lattice with skin-reinforced cement-based materials, and
there were three groups of plain cement mortar specimens without
a lattice as the control group. A total of 35 results were measured.
For the control group and 10 types of lattice-reinforced specimens,
the largest of the three groups in terms of the peak load was
selected to analyze the strain evolution characteristics, as pre-
sented in Section 3.2.
bending tests (black, blue, and red solid lines) of the specimens in
groups A, B, and C (the control group, i.e., the unreinforced plain
cement mortar group). Regarding group C, when the maximum
tensile stress in the mid-span reached the tensile strength of the
cementitious matrix, an abrupt brittle fracture occurred, the spec-
imen split into two parts, and the specimen failed and could not
continue to carry the load. The lattice-reinforced group showed a
ductile response as compared with the plain cement mortar group,
which occurred in the later loading period; the deflection change in
the middle of the span was larger, while the load change was
smaller.
The cracking bending moments of all the reinforced specimens
were approximately the same, namely about 1500 N, which was
generally consistent with the fracture load of the plain cement
mortar specimens. This shows that the addition of the lattice did
not significantly change the cracking load of the cement-based
materials; instead of the cementitious matrix, the lattice bore the
tensile load after reaching the cracking load.
For the specimens in group A (A-1 and A-2) composed of uni-
form lattices, the load dropped sharply after reaching the first peak
(cracking load), then rose again to reach the peak, and then gradu-
ally declined. It can be seen from the comparative analysis that the
uniform lattice in specimens A-1 and A-2 was arranged with a
cubic unit cell in the middle of the span, while the graded lattice
in the specimens in group B was arranged with a BFVC unit cell
in the middle of the span at the bottom layer. The deformation
mechanism of the cubic unit cell under bending load was mainly
tensile deformation, while that of the BFVC unit cell was mainly
bending deformation. Because the volume fraction and stiffness
of the BFVC unit cell were larger than those of the cubic cell, the
deformation in tension was smaller. When the cracking bending
moment was reached, the cementitious matrix stopped working,
and the load was borne by the internal lattice at the moment.
When the difference of the cracking bending moment was not
large, the deformation of the BFVC unit cell dominated by bending
deformation was much smaller than that of the cubic unit cell
dominated by tensile deformation, so the load of the specimen
containing the BFVC unit cell had no sudden change.
The maximum load-bearing values of all specimens are listed in
Table 3 in the order of greatest to least (see Fig. 8 for a more intu-
itive presentation of the relationship of the peak bending load).
It can be seen from the average values of the peak load reported
in Table 3 that the peak load of all lattice-reinforced groups was
higher than that of the plain cement mortar control group, and
the peak load of the full-section uniform lattice-reinforced group
(group A-1) was higher than that of the single-layer uniform
lattice-reinforced group (group A-2). The average peak loads of
lattice-reinforced groups B-3 and B-5 were approximately the
same. Moreover, the average peak loads of lattice groups B-1, B-

Table 3
The peak load of the lattice-reinforced and plain cement mortar specimens.

Type A-1 A-2 A-3 A-4 A-5 C B-1 B-2 B-3 B-4 B-5
Peak load I (N) 1899.078 1565.063 1544.175 2999.266 4287.389 1705.848 3374.566 3205.421 3658.783 3444.547 3748.769
Peak load II (N) 1796.853 1541.430 1444.618 2882.174 3319.355 1170.640 3055.596 3151.642 3502.367 3090.095 3703.128
Peak load III (N)  1401.842 1382.032 2806.781 2802.918 1076.025 s 2980.241 s 3025.803 3404.771
Average (N) 1847.97 1502.78 1456.94 2896.07 3469.89 1317.50 3215.08 3112.43 3580.58 3186.82 3618.89

Note: (1) ‘‘s” indicates that data interruption was not recorded completely during loading. (2) ‘‘” indicates that the data was lost during the test.

9
C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al. Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734

Fig. 8. The peak bending strength of the lattice-reinforced and plain cement mortar specimens.

Fig. 9. The evolution of the horizontal strain field (exx) of the specimens in group C.

10
C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al. Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734

Fig. 10. The evolution of the horizontal strain field (exx) of the specimens in group B-1.

2, and B-4 were approximately the same, but much of them were near the mid-span of these two specimens under bending load. The
lower than those of lattice-reinforced groups B-3 and B-5. The strain concentration region then evolved into a crack that extended
specific failure mechanism is explained in Section 3.2. from the bottom to the loading point during continuous loading,
forming a main vertical crack. After the crack was formed, the
cementitious matrix exited the work, the internal lattice bore the
3.2. Analysis of the DIC-monitored strain field
stress, and the specimen finally failed due to the damage of the
internal lattice. By comparing the specimens in group C with those
The strain field at the corresponding time during loading was
in group A-1, it can be seen that the lattice used as the reinforce-
obtained using VIC-2D software to process the acquired images.
ment changed the brittle fracture failure of the plain cement mor-
The transverse expansion of the cement specimens under vertical
tar under bending load into ductile failure with certain toughness.
load exhibited positive strain. The transverse strain of the speci-
The comparison between the specimens in groups A-1 and A-2
men during bending was selected for analysis, and the correspond-
shows that the arrangement of a layer or a full-section lattice com-
ing strain evolution and crack formation processes are shown in
posed of a single cubic unit cell at the bottom of the tensile zone
Figs. 9-19.
had no significant effect on improving the failure mode of the
Consider the plain cement mortar specimen (group C, as shown
cement-based materials. This is mainly due to the low volume frac-
in Fig. 9), which experienced sudden brittle fracture under bending
tion and stiffness of the cubic lattice, and the relatively low stiff-
load. Before fracture, there was no obvious strain concentration
ness after cracking. Therefore, a uniform lattice layout in the full
area at the bottom of the mid-span, and there was no obvious crack
section is not the best way to strengthen cement-based materials,
formation. By comparing the full-section uniform lattice-
as it may lead to unnecessary material waste. According to the
reinforced specimens (group A-1, as shown in Fig. 15) with the bot-
bending stress distribution characteristics of cement-based mate-
tom uniform lattice-reinforced specimens (group A-2, as shown in
rials, graded design was carried out for the lattice structure. The
Fig. 16), it can be seen that a strain concentration area was formed

11
C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al.
Fig. 11. The evolution of the horizontal strain field (exx) of the specimens in group B-2.
customized advantage of 3D printing can perfectly solve this
problem.
The strain evolution laws of the specimens in group B-1 (as
shown in Fig. 10) and group B-2 (as shown in Fig. 11) were similar.
At the initial loading stage, the strain distribution in the whole
region had no obvious rule. In the subsequent analysis, the area
with a short distance on the left and right sides of the central axis
of the specimens was approximately treated as a pure bending sec-
tion. With the increase of the load, strain concentration occurred in
the mid-span area of the specimens, which was consistent with the
maximum bending moment in the mid-span area under three-
point bending load. The maximum bending moment at the bottom
of the mid-span means that the tensile stress was also the maxi-
mum, so the maximum tensile strain occurred. When the maxi-
mum tensile stress exceeds the maximum tensile strength of the
cementitious matrix, micro-cracks will occur. The maximum ten-
sile strain did not occur at the bottom of the mid-span because
the specimens were preloaded with a single-layer graded lattice
at the bottom. The lattice was arranged with BFVC unit cells in
the mid-span (the deformation mechanism of which was domi-
12
Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734
nated by bending deformation); this had a strong ability to limit
crack extension and crack width expansion (as shown in Fig. 10
(c) and 11(c), in which dark areas representing large strain
appeared in the middle layer). The maximum tensile strain in the
middle layer of the span evolved into a main vertical crack during
continuous loading, which also shows that the effect of limiting
cracks in the middle layer without a lattice was poor. With the
increase of the load, many regions with large strain were formed
near the vertical crack in the abdomen of the specimen. These
strain concentration areas gradually evolved into secondary cracks
in the subsequent loading and extended to the loading point and
the bottom support, which was accompanied by the expansion of
the crack width. During the evolution process, the small fractures
connected with each other and extended, and, finally, main diago-
nal cracks were formed on both sides of the main vertical crack.
The evolution process of diagonal cracks shows that the specimens
experienced shear failure. This proves that the single-layer graded
lattice used in this study can change the failure mode of cement
mortar under three-point bending load from flexural tensile failure
to flexural shear failure. During the loading of the specimen, when
C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al.
Fig. 12. The evolution of the horizontal strain field (exx) of the specimens in group B-3.
the main diagonal cracks formed, a large number of diagonal
micro-cracks appeared on the surface of the bottom lattice of the
specimen, and some cracks continued to extend to the loading
point during the subsequent loading. The comparison of the crack
evolution processes of the specimens in groups B-1 and B-2 with
that of the specimens in group C shows that the graded lattice-
reinforced cement mortar used in this study can achieve multiple
cracking behaviors under bending load.
At the later stage of loading of the specimens in groups B-1 and
B-2, in the area where the diagonal crack intersected the top lattice
strut, the diagonal crack began to extend and expand to both sides
along the interface between the lattice structure and the cementi-
tious matrix. This was due to the sudden change of the stiffness at
the interface between the cementitious matrix and the lattice,
resulting in the disharmony of the deformation in this area and
the stress concentration. Simultaneously, under the three-point
bending load, the left and right spans were bending shear sections,
which were subjected to shear forces in the oblique direction.
When the shear force generated on the inclined section exceeded
the bonding strength between the cementitious matrix and lattice
13
Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734
structures, the lattice and the cementitious matrix were debonded.
The crack width of the debonded specimen interface caused by
continuous loading increased while the load on the specimen con-
tinued to increase. This is because the position of the neutral axis
moved up and the maximum tensile strain increased with the
interface cracking and the debonding of the lattice structure. In
the graded lattice specimens of group B, the failure of groups B-
1, B-2, B-4, and B-5 was caused by the debonding failure of the
cementitious matrix and lattice edges (as shown in Fig. 10(i), 11
(i), 13(i), and 14(i)). No cement mortar crushing occurred in the
compression area or tensile fracture of the lattice strut in the ten-
sion area, which experienced local shear failure. According to the
strain evolution analysis of the specimens in groups B-1 and B-5,
with the increase of the number of layers of graded lattice, the time
taken for cementitious matrix and lattice debonding increased (i.e.,
the maximum load during debonding increased). This is because as
the number of lattice layers increased, the interface between the
cementitious matrix and the lattice, which experienced a sudden
change in stiffness, moved upward, and the bending moment at
the corresponding height decreased (i.e., the shear stress at the
C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al.
Fig. 13. The evolution of the horizontal strain field (exx) of the specimens in group B-4.
interface decreased). This increased the time taken for the load at
the interface to reach the bonding strength of the cementitious
matrix and the lattice structure.
The lattice in the specimens in group B-3 included one addi-
tional layer as compared to that in the specimens in group B-2,
but there were gaps near the mid-span. By comparing the strain
and crack evolution of groups B-2 and B-3, it can be seen that there
was no vertical crack in the mid-span of the specimens in group B-
3 under loading, but two cracks appeared in the mid-span abdom-
inal area (the cracks occurred roughly along the interface between
the lattice and the cementitious matrix) and extended to the load-
ing point. This may be because the cementitious matrix near the
mid-span bore similar tensile forces, whereas at the interface
between the cementitious matrix and the lattice, the shear bearing
capacity was much less than the tensile load capacity. At the inter-
face between the cementitious matrix and the lattice, the bond
strength was lower than the tensile strength of the cementitious
matrix, and the shear resistance was weak. Shear failure occurred
before tensile cracks occurred. Another reason may be that the ten-
sile stress near the mid-span was large, which directly led to the
debonding of the cementitious matrix and the lattice structure.
14
Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734
During the subsequent loading, the cement mortar in the gap
was completely debonded due to the extrusion of the lattices on
both sides, thus forming a columnar cement block (as shown in
Fig. 20(i)). In the later loading stage, the cementitious matrix in
the gap was compressed, and the lower single-layer lattice was
tensioned. Finally, the single-layer lattice failed with the tensile
fracture of the single-layer lattice.
Groups B-4 and B-5 are respectively the two- and three-layer
graded lattice-reinforced groups without gaps in the mid-span.
During the loading of the two lattice-reinforced groups, there were
no penetrating vertical cracks in the mid-span area, but there were
many diagonal cracks in the left and right bending shear sections.
These diagonal cracks were formed in the area with a large strain
at the bottom of the specimens (the tensile stress in these areas
exceeded the maximum tensile strength of the cement mortar,
resulting in micro-cracks) and extended to the loading point.
Among these cracks, only two continuously penetrated and
extended, and two main diagonal cracks were finally formed. After
that, the evolution processes of these two main cracks were similar
to those of the cracks in the specimens in groups B-1, B-2, and B-3
in the later loading period, which extended along the interface
C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al.
Fig. 14. The evolution of the horizontal strain field (exx) of the specimens in group B-5.
between the cementitious matrix and the lattice to both sides. The
final mode of failure for both types of lattice-reinforced specimens
was a reduction in the load-bearing capacity due to the debonding
of the cementitious matrix from the lattice, and no cement mortar
crushing or lattice breaking occurred. Based on the deformation
capacities of the specimens in groups B-4 and B-5 under load,
the two lattice-reinforced groups had greater resistance to bending
deformation. This is reflected in the fact that compared with the
bending process of the specimens in groups B-1, B-2, and B-3,
the specimens in groups B-4 and B-5 formed more cracks, but these
cracks did not penetrate each other to form larger cracks. From the
process of strain and crack evolution, it can be seen that the lattice
had the effect of limiting crack propagation and aggregation.
Compared with the specimens in group A-2, those in group A-3
were arranged with four unit cells (cell V) with diagonal bracing
added outside in the mid-span area. Although the added support
was limited, the strain evolution performance was similar to that
of the graded lattice in the specimens in group B.
The specimens in groups A-4 and A-5 respectively included the
addition of 2- and 4-mm skins (i.e., the base plate) on the lattice of
15
Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734
the specimens in group A-3. At the initial stage of loading, the spec-
imens in group A-4 had vertically distributed strain concentration
areas in the mid-span. With the increase of the load, the strain
exceeded the maximum tensile strain of the cementitious matrix,
cracks were generated and extended to the loading point, and
the crack width was enlarged. At this time, the mid-span crack
divided the specimen into two parts, which were connected by
the bottom skin. During subsequent loading, several micro-cracks
initiated from the bottom of the specimen. These micro-cracks
emerged and continued to extend toward the loading point, form-
ing one diagonal crack with the greatest width and length in each
of the multiple diagonal cracks in the left and right bending shear
sections. In the early stage, the specimen was divided into two
parts by vertical cracks in the mid-span, and two diagonal cracks
divided the specimen into four parts; this resulted in the shear fail-
ure of the inclined section of the specimen. The vertical and obli-
que cracks caused the specimen to form a ‘‘comb” structure, and
the bottom was connected by the skin. This phenomenon is similar
to the failure mode of beams without stirrups under bending load.
The failure pattern of the specimens in group A-5 was similar to
C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al.
Fig. 15. The evolution of the horizontal strain field (exx) of the specimens in group A-1.
those in group A-4 during the entire loading process, but no verti-
cal cracks appeared in the mid-span. Compared with that of the
specimens in group A-4, the skin of the specimens in group A-5
was thicker, and its maximum bending bearing capacity was also
increased. Therefore, there were more diagonal cracks during the
loading process, and the bottom skin also ultimately failed due to
the tensile fracture.
4. Discussion and summary
The bending tensile fracture damage of the cementitious matrix
occurred in the plain cement mortar specimen (C). The specimens
with uniform lattices arranged in the full section and single-layer
lattices arranged in the bottom layer (groups A-1, A-2, and A-3)
suffered ductile failure. After the tensile cementitious matrix
cracked, the load was borne by the internal lattice strut, and the
lattice finally failed after being broken.
16
Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734
The failure mode of the single-layer lattice specimens with skin
(groups A-4 and B-5) under bending load was mainly characterized
by the tensile fracture failure of the skin (as shown in Fig. 20(e)
and (f)). During the loading process, vertical cracks first appeared
in the mid-span, and micro-cracks then appeared from the bottom
of the bending shear area. With the increase of the load, the micro-
cracks continued to expand and the width increased. Some micro-
cracks penetrated and gathered, thus forming a main diagonal
crack with the greatest width and length among multiple diagonal
cracks, which led to the failure of the inclined section of the spec-
imen. With the penetration of the diagonal cracks, the specimen
was divided into a ‘‘comb” structure by the vertical cracks in the
mid-span or the diagonal cracks on the left and right sides. At this
time, the tensile load generated by the bending moment was com-
pletely borne by the skin at the bottom until it was pulled to fail-
ure. The maximum flexural capacity of the single-layer lattice-
reinforced cement-based specimens with skin was determined by
the tensile strength of the underlying skin.
C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al.
Fig. 16. The evolution of the horizontal strain field (exx) of the specimens in group A-2.
The failure mode of the graded lattice specimens (groups B-1, B-
2, B-3, B-4, and B-5) under bending load was mainly characterized
by damage due to the debonding of the lattice from the cementi-
tious matrix (as shown in Fig. 20(g), (h), (k)), and damage due to
the tensile fracture of the lattice at the bottom of the specimen
without debonding (as shown in Fig. 11(i)). There was also a case
in which the debonding damage of the lattice from the cementi-
tious matrix occurred first, followed by the tensile fracture damage
of the bottom lattice (as shown in Fig. 11(j)). At the initial stage of
loading, the load was very small, and there was no crack on the
surface of the specimen. At this time, the stress was less than the
compressive strength of the cementitious matrix, which was
shared by the cementitious matrix and the lattice. With the
increase of the load, when the maximum tensile stress at the max-
imum bending moment (near the mid-span) exceeded the tensile
strength of the cementitious matrix, vertical cracks occurred. At
this time, stress redistribution occurred in the specimen, the
cementitious matrix near the mid-span withdrew from the work,
17
Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734
and the lattice bore the tensile load. As the load continued to
increase, diagonal cracks appeared in the bending shear areas on
both sides and extended to the loading point. With the gathering
and penetration of diagonal cracks, a main diagonal crack was
formed, and most of the cementitious matrix at the bottom of
the specimen was subjected to multiple cracks and withdrew from
the work. With the further increase of the load, the stress of the
specimen was redistributed continuously, and the stress of the lat-
tice strut was gradually increased. The tensile stress on the normal
section was borne by the horizontal or diagonal strut of the lattice
at the bottom, and the shear stress on the inclined section was
borne by the vertical or diagonal strut of the lattice. This also sug-
gests that the use of a lattice in the cementitious matrix can either
improve the overall toughness of the specimen, limit the formation
and extension of diagonal cracks and improve the aggregate bite
between cracks, or transform a single crack under cement mortar
bending into dispersed multiple cracks to display multiple cracking
behaviors.
C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al.
Fig. 17. The evolution of the horizontal strain field (exx) of the specimens in group A-3.
In combination with the strain evolution and crack analysis pre-
sented in Section 4.2, the plain cement mortar specimen suffered
from brittle failure. There was no strain concentration during the
whole loading process, and the specimen finally failed due to a sin-
gle crack (as shown in Fig. 20(a)). The failure mode of the plain
cement mortar specimen under bending was characterized by sud-
denness and low ductility, and there was no warning of impending
failure. The specimen reinforced by the uniform lattice composed
of low-volume-fraction cells in the full section or bottom layer
was subjected to ductile failure, and its strain evolution and strain
concentration distribution in the whole process of loading were
monitored via DIC technology. The bending failure of this type of
lattice-reinforced specimen first occurred during the tensile frac-
ture of the cementitious matrix, and then during the layer-by-
layer tensile fracture of the lattice strut, which had certain ductil-
ity. The ductile failure of the lattice with skin and the graded
lattice-reinforced specimens can be identified by DIC technology
18
Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734
to monitor the formation process of strain concentration areas
and their evaluation into cracks under load. Moreover, it can be
identified via the increase in the number of cracks on the surface
of the specimen, the crack extension, and the crack width
expansion.
In this study, because most of the specimens in group B did not
undergo the tensile failure of the lattice, but instead underwent the
debonding failure of the lattice and the cementitious matrix, it was
impossible to quantitatively analyze the relationship between the
volume fraction of the graded lattice and the bending capacity. A
qualitative analysis was carried out on the lattices with similar vol-
ume fractions, as well as their bending bearing capacities and
cracking characteristics, in combination with Table 4. The volume
of the specimens in group A-1 with uniform lattices arranged in
the full section was larger than those of the specimens in group
A-4 with lattices with skin and those in group B-1 with single-
layer graded lattices. Additionally, the maximum bending bearing
C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al.
Fig. 18. The evolution of the horizontal strain field (exx) of the specimens in group A-4.
capacity of the specimens in group A-1 was far less than those of
the specimens in groups A-4 and B-1. Moreover, the lattice with
skin represented by group A-4 and the graded lattice represented
by group B-1 achieved multiple cracking behaviors. This demon-
strates that the graded lattice structure designed based on the
loading characteristics can reduce the amount of materials used
and effectively improve the maximum bending bearing capacity
and cracking characteristics of cementitious composites.
5. Conclusion
In this paper, 10 kinds of lattice structures were printed using
MJF technology. According to the stress distribution characteristics
of three-point bending, the graded lattices were designed and
strengthened in specific areas to study the advantages of 3D-
printed graded lattice as compared with a single uniform lattice-
reinforced cement mortar in terms of the bearing capacity, crack-
ing characteristics, failure mode, and other flexural properties.
19
Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734
The mechanical properties of the 3D-printed graded lattice-
reinforced cementitious composites under three-point bending
load were studied using DIC. Some important conclusions are listed
as follows.
(1) In terms of the maximum bending bearing capacity, the lay-
out of the uniform lattice with a low volume fraction of unit
cells in the whole section and the single-layer lattice in the
tensile zone did not significantly improve the maximum
bending bearing capacity of cement-based materials. All
the lattices did not increase the cracking load of the
cement-based materials.
(2) A customized graded lattice and a lattice with skin can sig-
nificantly improve the maximum flexural capacity of
cement-based materials, and can also improve the cracking
characteristics and failure mode. The failure modes of the
cementitious composites reinforced with a 3D-printed
graded lattice and a lattice with skin respectively changed
from the brittle fracture failure of a single crack to the duc-
C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al.
Fig. 19. The evolution of the horizontal strain field (exx) of the specimens in group A-5.
tile failure of multiple cracks, and from the tensile failure of
the plain cementitious matrix to the flexural shear failure of
the lattice and cementitious matrix.
(3) The experimental analysis demonstrated that the deforma-
tion mechanism of the lattice-reinforced cement-based
material specimens with skin was similar to that of beams
without stirrups in concrete structures. The deformation
mechanism of the graded lattice-reinforced cement-based
material specimen was similar to that of beams with stirrups
in concrete structures.
(4) The lattice in the specimen can change the stress transfer
path, which can then affect the distribution of stress and
strain. The presence of a lattice in cement-based materials
20
Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734
has the excellent effect of limiting cracking and preventing
crack propagation. The dowel action of the lattice improves
the overall flexural performance of cement-based materials.
For graded lattices, the lattice structure can be strengthened at
specific locations according to the customized characteristics of 3D
printing, thus allowing for the achievement of local reinforcement
at the vulnerable parts of cement-based materials and the parts
with a large preset load; ultimately, the amount of materials can
be reduced and the performance can be improved. The lattice with
skin has the potential to be applied in formwork engineering in
civil engineering construction. It can be considered a permanent
formwork to replace concrete and coordinate the reinforcement
C. Tang, J. Liu, W. Hao et al. Materials & Design 227 (2023) 111734

Fig. 20. The failure modes of the cement specimens.

Table 4
The volumes of various lattice structures.

Type A-1 A-2 A-3 A-4 A-5 B-1 B-2 B-3 B-4 B-5
Volume/mm3 23783.6 8467.5 10407.9 17376.3 27744.3 22920.8 28155.6 31011.5 32608.1 36548.6

tension, protect the internal concrete from erosion, and reduce the
workload of formwork removal.
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgment
The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by
the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.
11872025), the Six Talent Peaks Project in Jiangsu Province (Grant
No. 2019-KTHY-059) and Self-made experimental instruments and
equipment project of Yangzhou University (Grant No.
zzyq2022zy05).
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2023.111734.
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