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Using solid waste-based materials, such as recycled building aggregate (RCA), preparing 3D-printed materials can reduce costs but increase the water–cement ratio of the printed material, which reduces its mechanical performance. In order to solve the problem of mechanical properties decline caused by an increase in the w/c ratio, this experiment found that adding calcined salt mud (CSM) to the printing materials and changing the water-to-cement ratio from 0.37 to 0.4 CSM can ensure that the compressive strength of the printing materials remains basically unchanged. Moreover, through TG, SEM, and other microscopic data, it can be seen that calcium hydroxide in CSM can not only participate in the synergistic reaction of ethylene/vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) and dust ash (DA), produce more NaOH, and promote the hydration of granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) but also promote the formation of ettringite together with SO42− in solution, optimizing pore size distribution.

Traditional lightweight foam concrete typically introduces a large number of voids into the concrete using surfactants to reduce density. However, in 3D printing, the instability of lightweight foam concrete can affect the workability of the slurry. Additionally, the lower strength of foam with more pores also reduces its mechanical performance. This study found that by replacing sand with expanded perlite in 3D-printed foam concrete, the stability of the foam is improved, enhancing the workability of the mixture and increasing the constructability of printed concrete. Furthermore, analyses of mechanical properties, porosity, and pore size distribution showed that at the same dry density, foam concrete with a higher expanded perlite replacement ratio exhibited higher compressive strength, with a maximum strength increase of up to 39%. Moreover, the introduction of expanded perlite optimized the pore distribution of the foam concrete, resulting in a more uniform material structure. The 3D-printed expanded perlite–foam concrete (3DPFC) prepared in this study provides new insights for the preparation of lightweight 3D-printed concrete, which is of significant importance for the sustainable development of the construction industry.

The main purpose of this research is to develop a solid waste-based cementitious material (SWC) instead of cement for solidifying a large amount of marine soft soil with high water content and low bearing capacity in coastal areas. This aims to solve the problems encountered in the practical application of cement soil, such as slow strength growth and poor durability. The SWC includes ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), dust ash (DA), and activated cinder powder (ACP), with admixtures of naphthalene sulfonate formaldehyde condensate (NS) and compound salt early strength agent (SA). Both the 7 d and 28 d compressive strength values of the SWC formulations G4 and G7 are about twice as strong as those of cement soil (GC), even when mixed with seawater. Immersion tests revealed that stabilized soil had superior resistance to seawater corrosion compared to cement soil. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis explained that the main hydration products in cement soil are C-S-H and CH, while in stabilized soil, SWC generates a large amount of C-A-S-H with gelling properties and AFt with filling properties. These hydration products have better effects on strength and seawater erosion resistance.

Due to environmental pollution and resource waste in its production, environmentally friendly and economically efficient curing agents based on fly ash have been proposed to replace traditional cement. However, such curing agents for the modified soil fail to meet the requirement of the early-age strength for foundation engineering due to the low activity of the fly ash. This paper investigates the strength performance of mucky silty clay curded by early-age strength fly ash-based curing agent (class-F fly ash, inorganic curing agent, and alkali activator account for 60%, 30% and 10% of the curing agent), featured with high early-age strength, through a series of laboratory tests. The results demonstrated that this agent completed most of the reactions within the first 7-day curing, and the early-age strength is higher than that of traditional fly ash modified soil (lime-fly ash modified soil). The 7-day modified soil UCS can reach 1.282 MPa with a 20% curing agent. In addition, with the increase of curing agent dosage, curing time, and confining pressure, the deviator stress of modified soil increases significantly. The cohesion and internal friction angle of modified soil increase with the increase of dosage and curing time, but compared with the increasing of cohesion, the internal friction angle of modified soil increases more slowly. The pores in the modified soil tend to change from large to tiny with the addition of a curing agent, and a great deal of gel state products have appeared in the pores of the modified soil. The improved early-age strength performance was attributed to quick hydration of the early-age strength fly ash-based curing agent, which generates a large amount of gel state hydration products and ettringite crystal to agglutinate the soil particles and fill the pores within the modified samples. The early-age strength fly ash-based curing agent still has high early-age strength performance in practical engineering applications. The 7-day UCS obtained from the field test can reach 83.8%− 85.8% of the 28-day UCS.

The high fluidity and low yield stress of fresh foam concrete affect the shape stability and buildability of foam concrete in the printing process, which is quite a challenge to its application in digital construction. Therefore, this article proposes the preparation and characteristics of 3D printed pre-foaming concrete (3DFC). The rheological properties proved that the addition of 0.1 wt.% Hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) to 3DFCs weakens the fluidity but increases the static yield stress and apparent viscosity, thus enhancing the buildability. More importantly, the influences of surfactant on the rheological property, compressive strength, pore structure and thermal conductivity of 3DFCs were evaluated. Analysis results show that the static yield stress of 3DFCs decreases from 1735 to 687 Pa with surfactant dosage from 0 to 2 wt.%. Moreover, the addition of surfactant significantly reduced the apparent viscosity of 3DFCs (especially at low shear rates), but its viscosity recovery rate was basically unchanged, which is good for buildability. Thanks to the increase of porosity, the volume density of 3DFCs decreased from 2211 to 1159 kg/m3, but the compressive strength of 3DFCs also decreased slightly. The thermal conductivity of 3DFCs shows good thermal insulation performance in the range of 0.2254–0.2879 W/m·K, which is also due to the increase in porosity of 3DFCs. Finally, in order to verify the practical application value of 3DFCs, an industrial printing product with more than 30 layers during the field application is displayed.

Using alkali-activated slag to prepare coatings is an alternative solution for concrete repair and protection. However, shrinkage cracking limits the application of alkali-activated slag, which also increases the risk of coating peeling. Graphene dispersions (content of 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6% and 0.8%) were added to the alkali-activated slag coatings. The drying time, apparent circumstance (thicknesses of 1 mm, 2 mm, 3 mm and 5 mm) and the tensile bond strength with 1 mm thickness coating were determined. The mechanism of action was analyzed in terms of both product and interfacial properties. The experimental results showed that the graphene dispersion would shorten the drying time of the coatings. The drying time was reduced by 57.1% (from 116 min to 52 min). Moreover, the graphene dispersion improves the cracking of the coating. The larger the coating thickness is, the better it improves the cracking effect. The surface cracking of the coating with 5 mm thickness was reduced by 60.7% (from 1.6751% to 0.6583%). Graphene can significantly improve the bond strength of the coating. When the graphene content is 0.8%, the bonding strength with a thickness of 1 mm is 0.502 MPa at 7 days and 1.577 MPa at 28 days. The bond strength increased by 280.3% and 175.2%, respectively, XRD, FTIR and SEM analysis showed that the increase in bond strength was caused by two factors. (1) Graphene can promote the generation of zeolite phase in alkali-activated slag. This is conducive to enhancing the interlayer adhesion of the coating itself. (2) Graphene is beneficial to reduce the pores in the transition zone between the coating and the substrate and enhance the contact area between the coating and the substrate and makes the transition zone denser.

The use of ultra-fine dredged sand instead of natural sand in construction 3D printing materials can significantly reduce the cost. However, ultra-fine dredged sand has fine particles and high angular morphology, which can hinder the buildability and continuous printability of construction 3D printing materials. The addition of polycarboxylate superplasticizer (PCE) can effectively solve this problem. Considering that the change of PCE (content of 0, 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%) content has a great influence on the printing performance of mortar, in order to make up for this deficiency, nano clay (content of 0,1%) is added to the mortar. The experimental results showed that the addition of nano clay can significantly reduce the negative effects of PCE on the yield stress and apparent viscosity of 3D printing materials (3DPM). When the content of PCE is 0.2%, the addition of 1% NAC could increase the static yield stress and viscosity growth rate of 3DPM by 111.8% and 115.3% respectively. In addition, unconfined compressive strength test, isothermal calorimetry, Mercury invasion porosity method and thermogravimetric analysis were used to characterize the hardening properties of 3DPM. The results of heat of hydration showed that the addition of nano clay reduced the hydration exothermic peak of 3DPM, but increased the total heat release. The results of pore structure analysis showed that the addition of nano clay reduced the macropore (>1000 nm) of 3DPM from 19.31% to 18.82%. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that the addition of nano clay increased the hydration products. Therefore, the compressive strength of 3DPM was kept within an acceptable range. Finally, the laboratory’s printing results indicated that the 3DPM can print up to 20 layers continuously.

It is difficult to treat dredged sludge with high organic matter content by solidification. A new solidification of dredged sludge with high organic matter content was developed, using cement, fly ash, slag, and phosphogypsum as a solidifier and strong oxidant KMnO4 and GH as additives, to improve the engineering performance of dredged sludge and make it as a roadbed material possible. The properties of the solidified samples were determined in terms of unconfined compressive strength, products of hydration, toxicity characteristics, water stability, freeze-thaw resistance, and volume stability. The microstructure and hydration products of the dredged sludge after solidification were evaluated by X-ray diffraction analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and thermogravimetry-differential scanning calorimetry analysis. Experimental results showed that the strength of the solidified samples has been significantly improved after treatment by strong oxidants. The effect of GH is better than that of KMnO4. Hydration products (ettringite) were well formed. After solidification by using the binders and strong oxidant GH, the samples had sufficient strength and good water stability performance, freeze-thaw resistance performance, and volume stability performance. The leach liquid of the dredged sludge solidified body meets the standard requirements. So, the dredged sludge after solidification can reach the requirement of the roadbed material.