Bio-inspired 3D printed SHCC (3DP-SHCC) porous lattice walls for enhanced compressive performance

Drawing inspiration from the slender stem of Elytrigia repens , 3D printed strain-hardening cementitious composite (3DP-SHCC) porous lattice walls were designed and fabricated using 3D concrete printing. In this study, we developed 3DP-SHCC porous lattice walls incorporating five distinct porous lattice infill patterns. Both experimental tests and numerical simulations were conducted to examine the compressive performance of these walls. Results show that all specimens exhibit ductile failure, maintaining structural integrity even with axial compressive strains of up to 10%, which is difficult to achieve in traditional concrete structures. Compared to traditional 3D printed concrete walls, the bio-inspired walls exhibited 1.93- and 6.03-times improvements in compressive strength and ductility factor, respectively, while achieving lower structural density. In addition, a predictive method for the axial compressive ultimate load-bearing capacity was proposed, achieving high accuracy with errors between 0.02% and 11.2%, although independent validation is still required. This study provides new insights into the design of material-efficient and high-performance 3D printed walls.