Composites Part B 268 (2024) 111079

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Composites Part B
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesb

Mechanical strengths and optical properties of translucent concrete

manufactured by mortar-extrusion 3D printing with polymethyl
methacrylate (PMMA) fibers
Qifeng Lyu a, *, Pengfei Dai b, Anguo Chen c
a
School of Urban Construction, Changzhou University, Changzhou, Jiangsu, 213164, China
b
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou, Jiangsu, 213164, China
c
Changzhou Architectural Research Institute Group Co., Ltd., Changzhou, Jiangsu, 213000, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Handling Editor: Dr Hao Wang Manufacturing conventional translucent concrete consumes lots of labors and formworks. To solve this problem,
novel translucent concrete was proposed and manufactured in this work by mortar-extrusion 3D printing, which
Keywords: used polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) fibers to transmit light and also reinforce the printed concrete. The
Translucent concrete printing procedures started by extruding one-layer mortar first, and then the fibers were placed on top the
PMMA fibers
printed mortar. Afterward, repeated the above two steps multiple times. The printability, mechanical strengths,
Mechanical strength
optical properties and micro characteristics of the printed translucent concrete were tested. Results showed the
Light transmittance
3D printing fibers increased the buildability and anisotropy of the printed specimens. Specifically, in comparison with the
printed specimens without fibers, the flexural strengths of the printed translucent concrete with fibers increased
when loading perpendicular to the fiber orientation, whereas those in other loading directions decreased. The
fibers also increased the compressive strengths of the printed specimens when loading perpendicular to the fiber
orientation, but decreased those in loading parallel to the fiber orientation. Light transmittance of the fibers in
the printed translucent concrete was also studied. Results showed reflection coefficients of concrete, fiber di­
ameters, light incident angles influenced the light transmittance. Generally, the light transmittance increased
with the reflection coefficients and fiber diameters but decreased with the light incident angles. And the incident
angles, which were affected by the printing quality, influenced the light transmittance more than other two
factors did. The results and methods in this work can help to increase the efficiency of manufacturing translucent
concrete.

1. Introduction
Translucent concrete [1–3], also named transparent concrete [4,5]
or light-transmitting concrete [6–9], was invented by Áron Losonczi at
the beginning of this century [10]. This kind of concrete, made by
incorporating optical fibers [11,12] with cement-based materials [8,13],
has the merits of transmitting light and load-bearing capacities [6,7,14].
The translucent concrete was also of high aesthetics and thus drove
many architects to design relevant applications in façade and partition
walls, monuments, pavements, stairs, tiles, road signs, garden benches
[1,10,15,16], as shown in Fig. 1(a). Among these applications, there are
some famous ones like the Italian Pavilion in Shanghai Expo Park, which
used 3774 blocks with a dimension of 1 × 0.5 × 0.05 m to cover 1887 m2
surface area of the building façade. These blocks can transmit daylight
into the building interior without losing load-bearing capacity [6–8],
and thus reduced energy consumption of the building from using arti­
ficial lights [1,10]. Besides, the European Gate in Hungary and Al Aziz
Mosque in Abu Dhabi are also notable engineering applications of
translucent concrete [1]. However, the applications are pilot uses rather
than using widely due to high labor cost in the complex manufacturing
process of the translucent concrete [10]. This can be inferred from Fig. 1
(b), where the formworks used in manufacturing the translucent con­
crete are shown.
To reduce labor and formwork consumption [17,18], the 3D concrete
printing, which is an additive manufacturing technique, may provide
possible solutions [13,19]. The 3D concrete printing was proposed at the

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: lqf@cczu.edu.cn (Q. Lyu).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2023.111079
Received 21 January 2023; Received in revised form 23 August 2023; Accepted 24 October 2023
Available online 26 October 2023
1359-8368/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Q. Lyu et al. Composites Part B 268 (2024) 111079

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Materials

Ordinary Portland cement grade P • O 42.5 was used as the binder.

The chemical composition of the cement was tested by X-ray fluores­
cence (XRF) using a spectrometer named Bruker S8 TIGER. Results are
listed in Table 1, where it can be found the main elements of the cement
are Ca, Si, Al, Fe, S, O, etc. which are contained in the compounds of
calcium silicate (3CaO⋅SiO2 and 2CaO⋅SiO2), calcium aluminate
(3CaO⋅Al2O3), calcium ferro-aluminate (4CaO⋅Al2O3⋅Fe2O3) and cal­
cium sulfate (CaSO4). The particle size distribution of the cement was
tested by a Bettersize2600 laser granularity analyzer. Results are shown
in Fig. 2 where the particle size distribution of the river sand is also
depicted. The median diameters (D50) of the cement and sand are 16.26
μ m and 0.49 mm, respectively.
Besides the cement and sand, water, superplasticizer (powder form
water reducer), hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) and sodium
gluconate (retarder) were also used in producing the printing mortar.
The mix proportion of the mortar is listed in Table 2. The cement/sand
ratio is 1 whereas the water-to-cement ratio is 0.32. Powdered super­
plasticizer was used to improve the flowability of the mortar [53].
Fig. 1. (a) Engineering applications of conventional translucent concrete; (b)
HPMC was used to increase the plasticity and also slow down the hy­
Formworks in production of conventional translucent concrete.
dration process of the mortar, since placing the optical fibers in the
printing process requires relatively longer setting time for the mortar.
end of the last century [20–23], which developed fast in the past decade
And the sodium gluconate also served as the hydration retarder [31]. All
[24,25]. At the beginning, two kinds of printing were proposed, that
the ingredients were poured into a planetary mortar mixer for mixing 3
were Contour Crafting [21–23] and D-shape [20,25,26] which were
min.
based on mortar extrusion [27,28] and particle-bed 3D printings [25,
Generally, the fibers used in translucent concrete can be classified
29–31], respectively. And these techniques were also used in many pilot
into glass [54], polymer (e.g., PMMA, resin [5,55,56]), and optical fibers
engineering applications [32–34]. However, challenges also exist. For
(transparent fibers with a core and cladding made by polymer or glass
instance, the layered structure may reduce the strength and ductility of
with different refractive indexes, respectively [14,57–59]). Here in this
the printed concrete [18,34]. To minimize these drawbacks, many
work, the PMMA fibers with diameter of 1, 2, 3 mm but without cladding
reinforcing techniques were introduced, like short fiber reinforcement
were used. And the photos of the fibers are shown in Fig. 3 where the
[35–39], continuous cable reinforcement [32,40,41], mesh reinforce­
right panel shows fibers transmitting white (top) and violet (bottom)
ment [17,42], nail and rebar reinforcement [32,34,43,44]. Additionally,
light. The properties of the PMMA fibers are listed in Table 3, where it
the optical fibers or the other translucent glass or polymer fibers used in
can be found the working temperature of the fibers is suggested in the
the translucent concrete may also reinforce the concrete to a certain
range of − 25 ◦ C–75 ◦ C. For the refractive index, an average value of 1.49
extent [8,19,45,46], though the surfaces of such fibers are usually
can be used for visible lights. The density of the PMMA fibers is 1190
smooth [2,47]. Moreover, the disadvantage of the layered structure of
kg/m3 which is slightly higher than that of water and less than one half
printed concrete can sometimes become advantage. For instance, when
of that of hydrated cement, and thus adding such fibers in concrete can
used as façade or partition walls of buildings, the layered structure
reduce dead weight of the concrete. The tensile strength, Young’s
which is more porous may reduce thermal conductivity of the wall and
modulus and Poisson ratio which relate to the mechanical properties of
also help to adsorb noises [18,48–50]. Thus, many related productions
the fibers are 82.5 MPa, 3 GPa and 0.4, respectively. The thermal con­
had been developed, e.g., 3D printed foam concrete [27,28,51,52]. From
ductivity of the PMMA fiber is 0.19 W/(m • K) which is much smaller
this point of view, the translucent concrete is also extremely suitable to
than that of concrete (around 1 W/(m • K)) [18,57].
be manufactured by 3D printing, not to mention this technique can
reduce labor and formwork consumption. However, to our knowledge,
2.2. Manufacturing methods
no reference had ever reported the 3D printed translucent concrete.
To fill the research gap, this work proposed a novel type of trans­
After the mortar had been mixed ready and the fibers had been
lucent concrete which was manufactured by mortar extrusion 3D
prepared, the printing can begin according to the procedures shown in
printing with fibers placed between the printed layers. The flowability,
Fig. 4. In this work, a gantry 3D printer was used for extruding mortar.
extrudability of the printing mortar and the buildability of the printed
The nozzle of the printer has a diameter of 20 mm, which moves in the x-
translucent concrete were tested and showed in the following sections.
y plane in the coordinates shown in Fig. 4(a) with a speed of 50 mm/s.
Besides, the flexural and compressive strengths of the printed trans­
After the first layer of the mortar had been printed, the nozzle lifted a
lucent concrete were also tested and their anisotropies were discussed.
height of h (h = 10 mm, 11 mm, 12 mm, respectively for the fiber with a
Additionally, the light transmittance in the fibers of the printed trans­
diameter of 1 mm, 2 mm, 3 mm) in the z direction. Then the fibers with a
lucent concrete was studied and its key influence factors were discussed.
designed horizontal spacing of 10 mm were placed manually on top of
Moreover, the micro structures of the printed translucent concrete were
the first-layer mortar. The purpose for changing the nozzle-lifting height
tested by an industrial X-ray computed tomography (X-CT). Pores and
is to improve the printability as the thicker fibers might be tiled by the
fibers in the printed translucent concrete were reconstructed. And their
nozzle and also break the printed filaments. Lifting a higher height of the
relations to failure planes generated in the strength tests were also dis­
nozzle for thicker fibers can minimize these deficiencies. After that,
cussed. The results and methods here may provide knowledge to
repeated to print one layer mortar and another layer of fibers as shown
enhance the manufacturing efficiency of translucent concrete in future.
in Fig. 4(c) and (d). Finally, a specimen like the one in Fig. 4(e) can be
manufactured, and a photo of the printing in progress is shown in Fig. 4
(f). The room temperature and humidity of the printing were 25 ± 2 ◦ C,

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Q. Lyu et al. Composites Part B 268 (2024) 111079

Table 1
Chemical composition of the cement (mass fraction)/%.
CaO SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 SO3 MgO K2O TiO2 Na2O P2O5 Others

56.57 21.58 9.62 3.88 3.81 2.09 1.19 0.62 0.15 0.14 0.35

manufactured, as listed in Table 4. The smaller one with a horizontal-

printing-path dimension of 180 × 40 mm and 5-layer height was used
for buildability test, and the larger one with a horizontal-printing-path
dimension of 220 × 220 mm and 18-layer height was then cut into
multiple (at least 9) prisms for mechanical strength test. After printing,
the specimens were cured in a condition of constant temperature of 20

± 2 ◦ C and humidity of 95%+ until the day to test.

2.3. Printability test methods

The flowability and extrudability of the printing mortar and the

buildability of the printed concrete were tested according to the
methods shown in Fig. 5. Specifically, the flowability was tested by the
jump table, cf. Fig. 5(a), where two values d1 and d2 for the diameter of
the spreading mortar were measured after the table jumped 25 times.
The average of d1 and d2 was recorded as the flowability of the mortar at
a certain time. However, the flowability changed over time. Thus, every
5 min, a new flowability was measured and recorded. Similarly, the
extrudability was also recorded every 5 min by measuring the average
width of the 300-mm-long printed filament as shown in Fig. 5(b). Three
Fig. 2. Particle size distribution of the cement and sand. values were averaged and the deviations were also calculated. If the
filament was too dry to break into parts, the width of the breaking point
was recorded as 0. For the buildability, a parameter B was used, which
Table 2 can be calculated by the following equation [27,28,31]:
Mix proportion of the mortar by mass ratio.
h
Cement Sand Water Superplasticizer HPMC Sodium gluconate B= , (1)
wb − wt
1 1 0.32 0.0009 0.0013 0.0007
where h represents the height of the specimen, wb represents the bottom
width of the specimen, and wt represents the top width of the specimen.
Three values (B) of each specimen were recorded, and the averages and
standard deviations were calculated for specimens in each group. When
B is higher, the buildability of the specimen is better.

2.4. Mechanical strength test methods

The flexural strength and compressive strength of the printed spec­

imens were tested. Different orientations of the printing layers and fibers
were considered. Fig. 6 illustrates the test groups, where the printing
direction is along the X axis. For the flexural strength test, three orien­
tation and loading directions were conducted, which were noted as FXZ,
FZX, FYZ, respectively. The first letter of the name represents the initial
of the “flexural”, the second letter represents the long-side orientation of
the tested prism, and the third letter represents the loading direction.
According to this naming rule, in literature [60,61], FXZ and FXY were
frequently tested, whereas FZX and FYZ were relatively rare but they
Fig. 3. PMMA fibers.
were important for the printed translucent concrete due to the different
orientations of the printing layers and fibers [62–64]. Similarly, CX, CY,
and 70 ± 5%, respectively. Four groups of specimens were printed,
CZ were used to represent the compressive strengths of different spec­
which were grouped by fiber diameters as listed in Table 4. T0 is the
imen orientations. The specimen size of flexural strength test is 40 × 40
specimen group without fibers, whereas T1, T2, and T3 are the group
× 160 mm, whereas that of compressive strength test is 40 × 40 × 40
names for specimens with fiber diameter of 1 mm, 2 mm, 3 mm,
mm. For each test, three specimens were used and the averages and
respectively. For each group, two specimens with different sizes were
deviations of the test data were recorded to represent the strengths.

Table 3
Properties of the PMMA fibers.
Working temperature Refractive index Density Tensile strength Young’s modulus Poisson ratio Thermal conductivity
3
− 25 C–75 C
◦ ◦
1.49 1190 kg/m 82.5 MPa 3 GPa 0.4 0.19 W/(m • K)

3
Q. Lyu et al. Composites Part B 268 (2024) 111079

Fig. 4. Manufacturing procedures of the 3D printed translucent concrete. (a) Printing the first-layer mortar; (b) Placing the first-layer fibers; (c) Printing the second-
layer mortar; (d) Placing the second-layer fibers; (e) Printed specimen; (f) Printing in progress.

2.5. Light transmittance test method

Table 4
Specimen groups of the 3D printed translucent concrete.
Light transmittance of single fiber in the printed translucent concrete
Group name T0 T1 T2 T3 was tested according to the method shown in Fig. 7, where a lux meter
Fiber diameter (mm) – 1 2 3 was used to detect the light power (i.e., luminance on unit area). There
Designed specimen height (mm) 50, 180 50, 180 55, 198 60, 216 were four steps involved and in each step a value of the lux meter was
Printing path dimension (mm) 180 × 40, 220 × 220
recorded. The first step was used to detect the light power L′ in the sit­
uation as illustrated in Fig. 7(a) and (e) where the light was generated

Fig. 5. (a) Flowability, (b) extrudability, (c) buildability test methods.

Fig. 6. (a) Orientation and loading direction of (b) flexural strength test and (c) compressive strength test.

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Q. Lyu et al. Composites Part B 268 (2024) 111079

Fig. 7. Light transmittance test method: (a) Step one; (b) Step two; (c) Step three; (d) Step four; (e) Test in progress.

from the light source on top of the specimen, then transmitted through
the fiber and finally detected by the lux meter under the specimen. The
size of the specimen and also the supports is 40 × 40 × 160 mm. The
second step was used to test the surrounding light power with the tested
specimen. And thus, the light source was removed and L′0 was detected
and recorded. The third and four steps were testing the light power when
without the specimens as illustrated in Fig. 7(c) and (d). L and L0 were
used to represent the light powers in these two steps, respectively. And
the final light transmittance T for the specific fiber in the tested spec­
imen can be calculated by

L′ − L′0
T= × 100%. (2)
L − L0

2.6. X-ray computed tomography test methods

An industrial X-CT facility [65] was used to test the micro structure
of the printed translucent concrete. The facility is shown in Fig. 8, which
consists of three parts that are X-ray source, specimen table and X-ray
detector. In a scan, the X rays are generated from the source, then
penetrate the specimen, and finally reached the detector [53]. When
penetrating the specimen, the X rays would be attenuated and its in­
tensity follows the Beer-Lambert law which can be expressed as:
I = I0 e− μx
(3)

where I represents the attenuated intensity, I0 represents the incident

intensity, e is the Euler’s number, μ represents an attenuation factor Fig. 8. X-CT facility.
affected by the specimen’s densities, and x represents the specimen’s
thickness in the X-ray propagation direction. Thus, the attenuated in­ following ordinary differential equations:
tensity can reflect the material density. This helps to distinguish mate­
dk ∂ω
rials of different densities in the composite. The data were stored as 32- =− (4)
dt ∂q
bit floating point images with 2048 × 2048 pixels and a resolution of
0.098 mm/pixel. A watershed method was used to segment the CT im­ dq ∂ω
ages [66]. = (5)
dt ∂k

2.7. Light transmittance computation methods where k is the wave vector, ω is the wave angular frequency, t represents
time, q is the position vector. The wave angular frequency and wave
Besides the experiments, the light transmittance of the fibers in the vector can be related by
printed translucent concrete can be computed by ray trajectories. An
c|k|
illustration of the computation method is shown in Fig. 9 where a light ω= − (6)
n(q)
source was placed at one side the translucent concrete near the optical
fiber. The rays generated from the source have an incident angle of θ where c is the light speed in vacuum, n(q) is the refractive index of the
which is the included angle between the ray propagation direction and material. For the PMMA fibers, the refractive index depends on wave
the horizontal line. The ray propagation can be computed by solving the

5
Q. Lyu et al.
Fig. 9. Light transmission computation method: (a) 3D view of schematic translucent concrete with a light source; (b) Side view of the translucent concrete; (c)
Schematic ray propagation in the translucent concrete; (d) Refractive index and extinction coefficient of PMMA [67].
length as shown in Fig. 9(d). In addition, the PMMA can absorb energy
from the propagating wave, and thus the refractive index is generally
expressed in a complex form as n − iκ, where κ is the extinction coeffi­
cient which is extremely small for visible light. In this work, the light
with 660 nm wavelength was used in the computation, and the refrac­
tive index and extinction coefficient are 1.4823 and 2.48 × 10− 7 ,
respectively. At the concrete and fiber interface, the diffuse scattering
boundary condition was used and the reflection coefficient of the con­
crete is denoted as r. For the ordinary Portland cement, r = 0.2–0.3,
whereas that of the white cement can reach to 0.6. Different reflection
coefficients were compared and studied in the computation. After the
Eq. (4) ~ (6) had been solved, the light powers of the rays propagating
through the inlet and outlet of the PMMA fiber, pi and po , can be
calculated, and then the light transmittance T of the fiber can be ob­
tained by
pi
T= × 100%.
po
3. Results
3.1. Printability
The printability which includes flowability and extrudability of the
Fig. 10. Printability test results: (a) Flowability and extrudability of the printing mortar. (b) Buildability of the printed translucent concrete.
Composites Part B 268 (2024) 111079
printing mortar and the buildability of the printed specimens are shown
in Fig. 10. The data in Fig. 10(a) were recorded every 5 min. It can be
found the flowability decreased significantly at the beginning 60 min
whereas the extrudability decreased slightly. For the last data point of
extrudability, the larger error bar indicated the printed filament had
broken into parts [31]. and the width of the breaking point was recorded
as 0 and thus the error bar representing the deviation of the recorded
data was so large. The open time for the printing was selected from 10 to
50 min after the mortar had been mixed ready. During this period, the
mortar showed better printability. Specifically, at 10 min, the flow­
ability and extrudability of the mortar were 185.3 mm and 31.3 mm,
respectively, whereas those at 50 min were 162.2 mm and 28.2 mm,
respectively. In view of literature records [68,69], the flowability be­
tween 155 and 195 mm generally showed better performance during the
printing. Thus, the open time of 10~50 min is suitable for the printing
after comprehensive considering the pumping time and the extrudability
(7) of the mortar.
The buildability of the printed concrete is shown in Fig. 10(b), where
it can be found the buildability of the translucent concrete with fibers
(T1, T2, T3) is better than that of the concrete without fibers (T0).
Especially, specimens in group T2 have the maximum buildability. The
reason is placing the fibers required additional time which hardened the
underlying printed mortar. In addition, the fibers are relatively light but
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Q. Lyu et al.
stiff, which can also provided support for the upper-layer mortar. This
increased the buildability too. However, the buildability of T3 decreased
a little in comparison with that of T1 and T2. The reason is the thicker
fibers in T3 led to uneven surfaces of the printed layers which decreased
the buildabilty. Results in Fig. 10(b) indicate the size (diameter) of the
fibers affects the buildability of the printed specimen and an optimal size
exists for a specific printing.
3.2. Flexural strength
Flexural-strength test results of the printed translucent concrete are
shown in Fig. 11. The data in Fig. 11(a) are grouped by fiber diameters
and loading directions. Generally, adding fibers in the printed concrete
may decrease the flexural strengths in the direction of FXZ and FZX but
increase the flexural strength of FYZ. The reason is the fibers were
parallel to the failure plane of FXZ and FZX tests, that weakened the
specimens, whereas the fibers in FYZ test were perpendicular to the
failure plane, which might bridge the cracks and thus reinforce the
specimen. This is similar to other fibers added to reinforce the 3D
printed concrete in literature [35,37,38]. Moreover, the flexural
strengths of the specimens without fibers (T0) have the relation of FXZ
> FYZ > FZX, whereas those of the specimens with fibers (T1, T2, T3)
show relation of FYZ > FXZ > FZX. These indicate the fiber significantly
affected the flexural strength of the printed specimen. Specifically, in
FXZ test results, the flexural strengths showed a decrease trend, though
slight deviations appeared in specimens of T2. The reason is the fiber
may cause stress concentration and break the continuity of the concrete.
The former generally decreased with the increase of fiber diameter,
whereas the latter increased with the fiber diameter. Additionally,
higher buildability caused by tidy fibers may also increase the me­
chanical strength of the specimen. All these caused the slight increase of
FXZ and FZX of T2 and the decrease of all flexural strengths of T3.
After the flexural strength test, the failure modes of the broken
specimens were analyzed. Results are shown in Fig. 11(b)-11(j), where
different fiber diameters and printing-and-fiber orientations were
considered. As discussed above, the fibers would weaken the flexural
strengths of the translucent concrete in the FXZ and FZX tests. This can
be also found from the failure modes shown in Fig. 11(b)-11(f), where
the failure planes in thinner-fiber specimens as the one in Fig. 11(b) (T1)
were less affected by the fibers. However, in thicker-fiber specimens, e.
g., T3 in Fig. 11(d), the failure planes generally developed across the
fiber locations. This indicates the thicker fibers broke the continuity of
the concrete and thus decreased the flexural strengths of the specimens.
Fig. 11. Flexural-strength test results of the printed translucent concrete: (a) Flexural strength data; Failure modes of specimens with different fiber diameters of (b)
T1, (c) T2, (d) T3 and close-up failure planes of (e) T1 and (f) T3 in the direction of FXZ; Failure modes of specimens with different printing-and-loading orientations:
(g) FXZ, (h) FZX, (i) FYZ and another (j) FYZ.
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Composites Part B 268 (2024) 111079
Additionally, the close-up failure planes in Fig. 11(e) and (f) show the
broken details of specimens in T1 and T3. It can be found the thinner
fibers can connect the failure planes during the crack development. This
in fact reinforced the concrete and thus increased the flexural strengths
of the specimens.
The printing-and-loading orientations significantly affected the
flexural strength of the printed translucent concrete as the tested data
shown above. The failure modes of the specimens with different
printing-and-fiber orientations after the flexural strength test are illus­
trated in Fig. 11(g)-11(j) where it can be found totally different failure
planes were generated in different orientations. Specifically, Fig. 11(g)
and (h) depict the failures of FXZ and FZX, where the printing directions
were perpendicular and parallel to the loading direction, respectively.
The main difference of the failure is the failure plane passed between the
fibers (FXZ) or through the fibers (FZX). And this failure difference also
indicates the reason for the lower flexural strengths of FZX. Neverthe­
less, the fibers can significantly increase the flexural strength of FYZ.
This has been illustrated in Fig. 11(i) and (j) where it can be found the
fibers perpendicularly crossed over the failure planes. This greatly
slowed down the crack development and reinforced the concrete.
3.3. Compressive strength
The compressive-strength test results of the specimens are shown in
Fig. 12 where the data are grouped by fiber diameters and loading di­
rections. Generally, adding fibers in the printed concrete increased the
compressive strengths of CX and CZ but decreased those of CY. The
reason is due to the correlation between fibers and failure-plane orien­
tations. During the CX and CZ tests, the fibers were perpendicular to the
loading direction which usually generated vertical failure planes that
may be connected and reinforced by the horizontal fibers. However, in
the CY tests, the fibers were in the same direction (vertical) of failure
planes. This is illustrated in Fig. 12(b)-12(g). Specifically, the relation of
the compressive strengths of T0 in the three directions is CX > CY > CZ.
This agrees with previous studies on other printed mortar [18,28,38,52,
60]. For the specimens with fibers (i.e., T1, T2, T3), the relation becomes
CX > CZ > CY. This is similar to the 3D printed high performance mortar
with high-content of micro steel fibers [38].
As the data shown above, the loading and fiber orientations signifi­
cantly affected the compressive strengths of the printed translucent
concrete. The failure modes of the specimens after compressive strength
tests are shown in Fig. 12(b)-12(g), where the first, second, third column
of the failure mode photos are the CX, CY, CZ tests results, respectively.
Q. Lyu et al.
Fig. 12. Compressive-strength test results of the printed translucent concrete: (a) Compressive strength data; Failure modes of (b) CX of T3; (c) CY of T3; (d) CZ of T3;
(e) CX of T1; (f) CY of T3; (g) CZ of T1.
It can be found, after the CX test, cf. Fig. 12(b) and (e), the failure planes
were generated along the loading direction which was perpendicular to
the fiber orientation. To a certain extent, the fibers can bridge the failure
planes and slow down the crack development. This finally increased the
compressive strength of the printed translucent concrete, though the
thicker fibers like those in T3 may also break the continuity of concrete
and thus decrease the strength relatively. On the contrary, the CY test
generated failure planes just along the fiber orientations. Thus, the fiber
reinforcement cannot be employed in this situation. Even worse, the
discontinuity induced by the fibers accelerated the failure of the speci­
mens, and finally resulted in the relatively lower compressive strengths
of the CY tested specimens. For the CZ tests in Fig. 12(d) and (g), they are
similar to the CX tests, though the pores among the printed filaments
may weaken the compressive strength whereas those in CX tests affected
the compressive strength relatively less.
3.4. Optical properties
The light transmittance of the fibers in the printed translucent con­
crete is shown in Fig. 13(a). Since the data are extremely scattered, the
violin plot is used, whose width indicates the distribution density of the
scattered data, and the mean values of the data in each group are rep­
resented by yellow dash lines, which are 2.34%, 2.68%, 11.5% for fibers
in T1, T2, T3, respectively. Generally, the light transmittance shows an
increase trend with the increase of fiber diameters, though the
increasement of T2 from T1 is unobvious. The reason is several fibers in
Fig. 13. (a) Light transmittance of the single fibers in the printed translucent concrete and light transmission photos of specimens in (b) T1; (c) T2; (d) T3.
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T2 were tilted by the nozzle during the printing because the hardened
mortar (indicating in the higher buildability of T2) might not be sticky
enough to stick the relatively thicker fibers. Some fibers in T3 also show
lower light transmittances, but such fibers only take a small part of the
data. The maximum light transmittance of the fibers appears in T3,
which reaches 21.3%, whereas the 0.65% in T2 is the lowest. Consid­
ering the volume fraction of the fibers distributed in 0.5%–5% (more
precise values are shown in the follow section), the light transmittance
of the present translucent concrete is not very high due to the fibers
without cladding to totally reflect the refracted rays from the core
PMMA, but it is also in a reasonable range in comparison with those in
literature [9,10]. The photos of light transmission in the printed trans­
lucent concrete are shown in Fig. 13(b)-13(d), where the blue-violet
light was used and it can be found the light transmittances of the
specimens are acceptable, and generally, the light transmittances
increased with the fiber diameters.
3.5. Micro characteristics
Micro characteristics of the printed translucent concrete were tested
by X-CT. The reconstructed pores and fibers are shown in Fig. 14(a)-14
(c), where it can be found the printing quality of the specimens is good,
though the fibers of T2 tilt slightly, which was caused by the printer
nozzle during the printing process since the hardened mortar might not
be sticky enough to stick the fibers. This also led to the reduction of light
transmittance. In addition, the pores in the interlayers are relatively
Q. Lyu et al.
Fig. 14. X-CT reconstruction of the pores and fibers of specimens in (a) T1; (b) T2; (c) T3; (d) Volume fraction of the fibers and pores. (e), (f), (g), (h) X-CT slice
images of the specimen after compressive strength test.
abundant, especially for the specimen of T1. The reason for the gener­
ation of such pores has two aspects: First, the printer nozzle might be
higher, which happened frequently in printing the upper layers; Second,
the printed filaments might not be wide enough as the mortar became
stiff and dry as time went on. Generally, the distributions of fibers and
pores in the printed specimens show randomness.
The volume fractions of the fibers and pores in the printed trans­
lucent concrete were calculated based on the CT images. Results are
shown in Fig. 14(d), where the fibers volumes were calculated based on
the fiber quantities and sizes, whereas the total volume fractions of the
fibers and pores were calculated directly by counting the relevant image
voxels, and then the pores volume can be determined by the subtraction
of fibers volume from the total. Generally, the volume fractions of the
total and fibers increase significantly with the fiber diameters, whereas
the pore fractions show a ’V’ trend since the pores in T2 are fewer. But
this fluctuation is largely occasional. It depends on the print time and
mortar quality. Specifically, the average fiber volume fractions of T1,
T2, T3 are 0.56%, 2.16%, 4.86%, respectively. Reviewing literature [2,
6–8], these values are in the general range of fiber fractions used in
conventional translucent concrete.
In addition, a specimen of T1 after the compressive strength test of
CZ was also scanned by the X-CT. Four slices of the inner structures are
shown in Fig. 14(e)-14(h), where it can be found the distributions and
relations of the pores, fibers, and failure planes. Generally, the larger
pores were distributed between the printing filaments and just adhered
to the fibers. To a certain extent, the fibers resulted in the generation of
the larger pores between printing filaments. For the failure planes, they
were arc-shaped, generated from the upper surface near the corner, and
developed largely in the vertical direction which was perpendicular to
the fiber orientation. The fibers may hinder the development of the
failure plane. This can be found in Fig. 14(e)-14(g). However, for the
slice without fibers, the failure planes became relatively more, like the
one shown in Fig. 14(h). This also indicates the fibers can reduce the
failure cracks and thus increase the mechanical strengths of the printed
translucent concrete in such loading direction.
3.6. Light transmission analyses
The light transmission in the fibers can be theoretically computed by
solving Eqs. (4)–(6) along with specific initial and boundary conditions.
The computation results of ray trajectories for several cases with
different fiber quantities and ray incident angles are shown in Fig. 15(a)-
15(f), where the light rays were generated from a source on the right of
the concrete with an incident angle θ which is the included angle be­
tween the ray propagation direction and the horizontal line (fiber
orientation). The rays diffused on the surfaces of concrete whose
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Composites Part B 268 (2024) 111079
reflection coefficient was r (r = 0.3 for the cases in Fig. 15(a)-15(f)),
whereas the rays entering the fibers were refracted. It can be found the
refraction rays had more power than the diffuse rays, especially when θ
approaching 0. Increasing θ would reduce the power of the rays that
propagated to the outlet surfaces of the fibers, and thus reduce the light
transmittance of the fibers. For multiple fibers in the translucent con­
crete, the power of rays entering each fiber might be different, cf. Fig. 15
(e) and (f), but the transmittance of each fiber remains the same. Thus,
analyses on single fiber’s light transmission are representative.
The light transmittance of the fibers with different diameters and
light incident angles were studied. Results are shown in Fig. 15(g),
where it can be found the light transmittance decreased significantly
with the increase of incident angle θ. And the decrease rates varied with
the fiber diameters. Generally, the light transmittance decreased faster
in smaller fiber diameters, e.g., those in T1, when increasing θ. Specif­
ically, the light transmittance of T1 fibers decreased to almost 0 (2.2E-
6%) when θ = 2◦ , whereas that of θ = 0◦ was 82.79%. In comparison, the
light transmittance of T3 dropped from 82.79% to 50.98%, when
increasing θ from 0◦ to 2◦ . In fact, no matter of the fiber diameters, the
light transmittance remained the same 82.79% when θ = 0◦ . This is
because when the rays propagate along the fiber orientation, there is no
diffuse loss of the light, but only refraction loss which merely depends on
the refractive index n − iκ that remains constant when using specific
material (PMMA) and wavelength (660 nm). However, when θ ∕ = 0◦ , the
fiber diameter showed influence on the light transmission which
generally increases with the fiber diameter. This is just the phenomena
shown in experiments.
The influence of the reflection coefficient r on the light transmittance
was also studied. Results are shown in Fig. 15(h), where the specimens
belong to T2. Generally, the influence is not significant, considering the
reflection coefficient of ordinary Portland cement is 0.2–0.3, and that of
white cement can be higher to 0.6. However, from 0.3 to 0.6 of the
reflection coefficients in Fig. 15(h), the increments of light trans­
mittance are trivial. For instance, when θ = 1◦ , 2◦ , the light trans­
mittance increases 0.23%, 2.36%, respectively. For θ = 0◦ , there is no
increment, since the light does not hit the concrete. When θ = 3◦ , the
increment of light transmittance is higher but the values of the light
transmittance drop to almost 0. Nevertheless, the light transmittance
can be slightly improved when the reflection coefficient reaches 1 that is
an idealized maximum for the reflection coefficient.
4. Discussion
4.1. Influences of printing process on the properties
From the above results, it can be found the printing process affected
Q. Lyu et al.
Fig. 15. Ray trajectories of translucent concrete with single fiber and (a) 0◦ , (b) 1◦ , (c) 2◦ , (d) 3◦ ray incident angles; (e) Side view and (f) 3D view of ray trajectories
of the translucent concrete with multiple fibers and 1◦ ray incident angle; (g) Light transmittance of specimens with different ray incident angles and (h) reflection
coefficients.
the mechanical and also optical properties of the printed translucent
concrete. First, adding fibers increased the buildability of the printed
specimens, because the time consumption of placing the fibers decreased
the flowability and extrudability of the printing mortar which became
drier and harder to better support the upper printing layers, as illus­
trated in Fig. 16(a). In addition, the rigid fibers also provided better
support than the fluidic mortar did. This is consistent with previous
studies [30,31], though wherein aggregates instead of fibers had been
used between the printing layers. On the other hand, adding fibers may
decrease the mechanical properties of the printed specimens because the
higher buildability and rigid fibers brought more pores or defects into
the specimens, especially for the larger-size fibers. This can be confirmed
by the results in Figs. 11, 12 and 14. Similarly, choosing suitable
printability (working time) for the printing mortar is also crucial to the
properties of printed translucent concrete, as shown in Fig. 16(b), where
the right-side mortar with higher buildability B2 but lower flowability F2
may generate more pores surrounding the fibers than the left-side one
with F1 and B1 . The pores are defects, resulting in lower mechanical
strength and poorer light transmittance of the printed translucent con­
crete. Moreover, during the printing process, the moving printer nozzle
may tilt the fibers, as illustrated in Fig. 16(c). This would also decrease
the mechanical strength and light transmittance of the printed trans­
lucent concrete, especially for the drier mortar with higher buildability
but lower flowability. The reason for the decreased strength is similar to
the above analysis that the defects brought by the tilted fibers weakened
the cohesion between the printing layers. For the decreased light
transmittance, the reason is the light rays may reflect much more times
on the boundary of the tilted fibers than they in straight fibers when
using the daily point lights. And the boundary reflection finally
consumed more rays. That is also the reason why the data in the
10
Composites Part B 268 (2024) 111079
experiments showed high fluctuation. More discussion on the fibers’
light transmittance is elaborated in Sec. 4.3.
4.2. Fiber’s influences on mechanical strengths
From the above results and discussion, it can be found the fibers
significantly affected the mechanical strengths of the printed translucent
concrete. A summary is illustrated in Fig. 17. For the fiber diameters,
they affected the failure-plane orientations. This is shown in Fig. 17(a),
where the failure plane becomes closer to the fibers when the fiber
diameter increases. The reason is the thicker fibers narrow the bridge
concrete between the fibers and thus weaken the strength of the con­
crete. This can be also found in other fiber-reinforced concrete re­
searches [70]. For the different printing-and-loading orientations,
Fig. 17(b) discusses their different influences on the flexural strength of
the printed translucent concrete. In FXZ test, the failure plane might not
pass through the fibers when the fiber diameter was not large. However,
in the FZX test, the failure plane generally passed through the fibers no
matter what the fiber diameter was. This is because the printing in­
terlayers were just in the loading direction, which were the weakest
planes in the specimen. The strongest direction was the loading direction
of FYZ, because the fibers reinforced the concrete. In this situation, no
matter what the orientations of printing interlayers and what the fiber
diameters were, the failure planes were connected tightly by the fibers
and the broken parts were still held together. This is similar to the
steel-bar reinforced concrete [71]. For the compressive strength test, the
failure planes were all generally developed in the loading direction.
However, the fibers in CY test were also in the loading direction. This
weakened the compressive strength since the fibers were akin to
pre-generated cracks in the failure plane. This is also the reason why CY
Q. Lyu et al.
Fig. 16. Influences of printing process on the properties of printed trans­
lucent concrete.
test gave the lowest compressive strength for a specific specimen. On the
contrary, in the CX and CZ test, the fibers worked like reinforced bars
that prevented the propagations of cracks and failure planes, which
might increase the compressive strengths. This had been reported in
literature [4]. For the difference of CX and CZ tests, the pores between
Fig. 17. Fiber’s influences on the mechanical strengths of printed translucent concrete.
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Composites Part B 268 (2024) 111079
the printing filaments might play different roles in the tests. Generally,
the vertical tubular pores in CX test influenced the stress transfer less
than the horizontal pores in CZ test did. This had been also reported in
literature, especially for the 3D printed mortar [27,28,52], though
different relations had also been reported in the printed concrete with
coarse aggregates [60,61,72–74], which generally used different
printers and methods. Nevertheless, the specimen size and where it had
been cut from the original printed specimen might also affect the test
results of CX and CZ, because the pores between the printing filaments
might locate at different places in the specimen and then affect the stress
transfer and cracks propagation. That is why the compressive results
were of high fluctuations.
4.3. Key influence factors on light transmittance
Three aspects were studied how they affect the light transmittance of
the fibers, which are illustrated in Fig. 18. The first one is the reflection
coefficient r. From the data in Fig. 15(h), it can be concluded that when
r1 < r2 , the light transmittance T1 < T2 as shown in Fig. 18(a), where
ID (r) is used to represent the influence degree of this factor (i.e.,
reflection coefficient r). The reason for the above relation is higher
reflection coefficients reduced the power loss of reflection rays. For the
fiber diameter d, which generally affected the light transmittance when
the incident angle θ ∕ = 0◦ , there existed the relation of T1 < T2 when
d1 < d2 , because larger fiber diameters decreased reflection times which
consumed much ray power. And the influence degree of the fiber
diameter is represented by ID (d). As analyzed above, this factor gener­
ally affected the light transmittance more than the reflection coefficient
did. This can be expressed as ID (d) > ID (r). For the incident angle of the
light rays, it significantly affected the light transmittance and generally
showed the relation of T1 > T2 when θ1 < θ2 , because larger incident
angles reduced the ray quantities entering the fibers. The influence de­
gree of the incident angles is expressed as ID (θ), which is also larger than
that of reflection coefficient ID (r) and fiber diameter ID (d). In applica­
tion, the straight light propagating along the fiber orientation is better
for increasing the light transmittance. But in reality, the lights are
generally point lights which radiate rays in every angle, including the
light in the experiment of this work. From this point of view, the tilt of
the optical fibers would affect the light transmittance, though the fibers
were designed to be straight. As discussed in Sec. 4.1, the tilted fibers
resulted from the moving printer nozzle might reduce the light trans­
mittance, because the daily point light rays would reflect much more
Q. Lyu et al.
Fig. 18. Influence factors on the light transmittance of printed trans­
lucent concrete.
times on the boundary of the tilted fibers than they in straight fibers and
the reflection would finally reduce the light power.
4.4. Limitations and perspectives
The experiments and analyses were carefully designed and con­
ducted, though some limitations still exist. First, the printing mortar can
be optimized by using diverse materials or mix proportions. Since the
printability of the mortar can affect the stability of the fibers, optimizing
the mortar can subsequently increase the mechanical strengths and light
transmittance of the printed translucent concrete. Secondly, similar to
manufacturing conventional translucent concrete, manually placing the
fibers was used in the printing of the present translucent concrete, which
can be replaced by robot arms in future after specific clamps controlled
by computer vision being invented. In addition, using multiple fiber
diameters and arrangements in a piece of printed translucent concrete
can be studied in future. Also, the thermal properties of the printed
translucent concrete are of importance for future studies, because the
light transmission in the translucent concrete may generate thermal
stress which depends on the thermal parameters of the concrete. Besides,
the fiber length, types, cladding and pores around the fibers were not
considered in this work for analyzing the influence factors on the light
transmittance. These can be also studied in future.
5. Conclusions
Novel translucent concrete was manufactured by mortar-extrusion
3D printing with optical fibers, and the relevant mechanical strengths
and optical properties of the printed translucent concrete were investi­
gated in this work. Conclusions can be drawn as follow:
● Translucent concrete can be 3D printed. The printing mortar was
made from cement, sand water, superplasticizer, hydroxypropyl
methylcellulose and sodium gluconate. The optical fibers were
PMMA fibers. The printing procedures started by extruding one-layer
mortar first, and then the fibers were placed on top the printed
mortar. Afterward, repeated the above two steps multiple times. The
printing process went smoothly by using the designed mixes and
procedures.
● The working flowability and extrudability of the printing mortar
were selected as 162.2–185.3 mm and 28.2–31.3 mm, respectively,
which provided suitable printability and working time for the
printing. Adding fibers increased the buildability of the printed
12
Composites Part B 268 (2024) 111079
specimens, because the time consumption of placing fibers decreased
the flowability and extrudability of the printing mortar which
became drier and harder to better support the upper printing layers.
In addition, the rigid fibers also provided better support than the
fluidic mortar did. Nevertheless, larger-size fibers may also decrease
the printability because the uneven surfaces of the printed layers
may break the upper-layer filaments and then decrease the build­
ability of the printing.
● Flexural strengths of the printed translucent concrete showed
distinct anisotropy. The fibers increased the flexural strengths of the
printed specimens in the test of FYZ, but decreased those in the tests
of FXZ and FZX. The reason is the fibers perpendicularly crossed over
the failure planes in FYZ tests, which greatly slowed down the crack
development and reinforced the concrete, whereas in FZX tests, both
the fibers and printing interlayers paralleled to the failure planes,
which seriously facilitated the crack propagation. For the FXZ texts,
only the fiber factor existed, which decreased the strength. Thus, the
printed translucent concrete showed FYZ > FXZ > FZX. For the
printed specimens without fibers, the test results showed FXZ > FYZ
> FZX due to the similar above reasons but only the printing-
interlayer factor existed and weakened the strengths, which resul­
ted in FXZ being the maximum.
● Compressive strengths of the printed translucent concrete also
showed anisotropy. And adding fibers may increase the compressive
strengths of the printed specimens in the test of CX and CZ but
decrease those in the test of CY. The reason is the fibers in CY test
were in the loading direction. This weakened the compressive
strength since the fibers were akin to pre-generated cracks in the
failure plane. On the contrary, in the CX and CZ test, the fibers
worked like reinforced bars that prevented the propagations of
cracks and failure planes, which increased the compressive strengths.
For the difference of CX and CZ tests, the vertical tubular pores in CX
test influenced the stress transfer less than the horizontal pores in CZ
test did. And thus, the printed translucent concrete showed CX > CZ
> CY, whereas the printed specimens without fibers showed relation
of CX > CY > CZ as conventional 3D printed concrete did.
● Light transmittance of the fibers in the printed translucent concrete
was affected by reflection coefficients of the concrete, fiber di­
ameters, light incident angles, etc. Generally, the light transmittance
increased with the reflection coefficients and fiber diameters but
decreased with the incident angles. The reason is higher reflection
coefficients increased the power of reflection rays and larger fiber
diameters decreased reflection times which consumed much ray
power. On the other hand, larger incident angles reduced the ray
quantities entering the fibers. Moreover, the incident angles influ­
enced the light transmittance more significantly than the fiber di­
ameters and reflection coefficients did. Thus, during the printing, the
tilted fibers resulted from the moving printer nozzle may reduce the
light transmittance significantly, because the daily point-light rays
would reflect much more times on the boundary of the tilted fibers
than they in straight fibers and the reflection would finally reduce
the light power.
Author statement
Qifeng Lyu: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Formal
analysis, Investigation, Visualization, Data curation, Writing, Supervi­
sion, Funding acquisition. Pengfei Dai: Methodology, Formal analysis,
Investigation, Visualization, Data curation. Anguo Chen: Investigation,
Visualization, Data curation.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Q. Lyu et al. Composites Part B 268 (2024) 111079

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