Extrudability and constructability are two important, yet contradictory issues pertaining to the construction of three-dimensional (3D) printing concrete. Extrudability is easily achieved when 3D printing cement mortar has a high water content and low cohesion, but the printed structure is easily collapsible. However, a 3D printing cement mortar with a low water content and high cohesion has a relatively stable printed structure although the cement mortar might not be extrudable. This study proposes a particle-based method to simulate 3D printing mortar extrusion and construction as an overall planning tool for building design. First, a discrete element model with time-varying liquid bridge forces is developed to investigate the microscopic effects of these forces on global rheological properties. Next, a series of numerical simulations relevant to 3D printable mortar extrudability and constructability are carried out. The study demonstrates that the effects of time-varying liquid bridge forces on rheological properties and the resulting extrudability and constructability of 3D printing mortar are considerable. Furthermore, an optimized region that satisfies both the extrusion and construction requirements is provided for 3D printing industry as a reference.

Concrete is the most commonly used construction material. However, its production leads to high carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and energy consumption. Therefore, developing waste-substitutable concrete components is necessary. Improving the sustainability and greenness of concrete is the focus of this research. In this regard, 899 data points were collected from existing studies where cement, slag, fly ash, superplasticizer, coarse aggregate, and fine aggregate were considered potential influential factors. The complex relationship between influential factors and concrete compressive strength makes the prediction and estimation of compressive strength difficult. Instead of the traditional compressive strength test, this study combines five novel metaheuristic algorithms with extreme gradient boosting (XGB) to predict the compressive strength of green concrete based on fly ash and blast furnace slag. The intelligent prediction models were assessed using the root mean square error (RMSE), coefficient of determination (R²), mean absolute error (MAE), and variance accounted for (VAF). The results indicated that the squirrel search algorithm-extreme gradient boosting (SSA-XGB) yielded the best overall prediction performance with R² values of 0.9930 and 0.9576, VAF values of 99.30 and 95.79, MAE values of 0.52 and 2.50, RMSE of 1.34 and 3.31 for the training and testing sets, respectively. The remaining five prediction methods yield promising results. Therefore, the developed hybrid XGB model can be introduced as an accurate and fast technique for the performance prediction of green concrete. Finally, the developed SSA-XGB considered the effects of all the input factors on the compressive strength. The ability of the model to predict the performance of concrete with unknown proportions can play a significant role in accelerating the development and application of sustainable concrete and furthering a sustainable economy.

Freeze–thaw damage gradients lead to non-uniform degradation of concrete mechanical properties at different depths. A study was conducted on the stress–strain relationship of stressed concrete with focus on the freeze–thaw damage gradient. The effects of relative freeze–thaw depths, number of freeze–thaw cycles (FTCs) and stress ratios on the stress–strain curves of concrete were analyzed. The test results demonstrated that freeze–thaw damage was more severe in the surface layers of concrete than in the deeper layers. The relative peak stress and strain of concrete degraded bilinearly with increasing depth. The stress–strain relationship of stressed concrete under FTC was established, and it was found to agree with the experimental results.

This study empirically investigated the influence of freeze–thaw cycling on the dynamic splitting tensile properties of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC). Brazilian disc splitting tests were conducted using four loading rates (0.002, 0.02, 0.2, and 2 mm/s) on specimens with four steel fiber contents (0%, 0.6%, 1.2%, and 1.8%) subjected to 0 and 50 freeze–thaw cycles. The dynamic splitting tensile damage characteristics were evaluated using acoustic emission (AE) parameter analysis and Fourier transform spectral analysis. The results quantified using the freeze–thaw damage factor defined in this paper indicate that the degree of damage to SFRC caused by freeze–thaw cycling was aggravated with increasing loading rate but mitigated by increasing fiber content. The percentage of low-frequency AE signals produced by the SFRC specimens during loading decreased with increasing loading rate, whereas that of high-frequency AE signals increased. Freeze–thaw action had little effect on the crack types observed during the early and middle stages of the loading process; however, the primary crack type observed during the later stage of loading changed from shear to tensile after the SFRC specimens were subjected to freeze–thaw cycling. Notably, the results of this study indicate that the freeze–thaw damage to SFRC reduces AE signal activity at low frequencies.

In this study, the effect of fiber angle on the tensile load-bearing performance and damage failure characteristics of glass composite laminates was investigated experimentally, analytically, and numerically. The glass fabric in the laminate was perfectly aligned along the load direction (i.e., at 0°), offset at angles of 30° and 45°, or mixed in different directions (i.e., 0°/30° or 0°/45°). The composite laminates were fabricated using vacuum-assisted resin molding. The influence of fiber orientation angle on the mechanical properties and stiffness degradation of the laminates was studied via cyclic tensile strength tests. Furthermore, simulations have been conducted using finite element analysis and analytical approaches to evaluate the influence of fiber orientation on the mechanical performance of glass laminates. Experimental testing revealed that, although the composite laminates laid along the 0° direction exhibited the highest stiffness and strength, their structural performance deteriorated rapidly. We also determined that increasing the fiber offset angle (i.e., 30°) could optimize the mechanical properties and damage failure characteristics of glass laminates. The results of the numerical and analytical approaches demonstrated their ability to capture the mechanical behavior and damage failure modes of composite laminates with different fiber orientations, which may be used to prevent the catastrophic failures that occur in composite laminates.

The tunnel boring machine (TBM) is typically used in hard-rock tunnel excavation. Owing to the unsatisfactory adaptability of TBM to the surrounding rock, when crossing high-strength and high-wear strata, the TBM can easily cause defects, such as abnormal wear on cutters and overload damage to bearings, thus affecting the construction efficiency and cost. Therefore, high-pressure waterjet technology should be applied to assist in rock breaking for efficient TBM tunneling. In this study, the effects of water pressure, nozzle diameter, and nozzle speed on cutting are investigated via laboratory experiments of cutting hard rock using high-pressure waterjets. The penetration performance of the TBM under different water pressures is investigated via a field industrial penetration test. The results show that high-pressure waterjets are highly efficient for rock breaking and are suitable for industrial applications, as they can accommodate the advancing speed of the TBM and achieve high-efficiency rock breaking. However, during the operation of high-pressure waterjets, the ambient temperature and waterjet temperature in the tunnel increase significantly, which weakens the cooling effect of the cutterhead and decreases the construction efficiency of the TBM. Therefore, temperature control and cooling measures for high-pressure waterjets during their long-term operation must be identified. This study provides a useful reference for the design and construction of high-pressure water-jet-assisted cutterheads for breaking road headers.

Soil conditioning is essential for addressing the stratum applicability problem of earth pressure balance (EPB) shields. Under high water pressures, EPB shields spew water and soil when excavating coarse-grained strata. Typically, foam combined with polymers and slurry is used to solve spewing. However, in current techniques, slurry, foam, and the other agents are mixed with soil separately, their synergistic effect is seldom realized. In this study, an anionic surfactant was used to foam in bentonite slurry to form bubble–slurry to maximize the synergy between bubbles and slurry. The slump, volume stability, and permeability test of bubble–slurry-conditioned sand was conducted to examine the conditioning effect, and the stratum applicability of bubble–slurry was determined from the perspective of permeability. It was found that the conditioning effect of bubble–slurry in coarse gravel soil was excellent and could expand the applicability of EPB shields. The main stabilization mechanism of bubble–slurry is that bentonite particles provide a space barrier for bubbles. And three seepage modes of bubble–slurry-conditioned sand were innovatively defined, and the occurrence conditions of the three seepage modes were analyzed according to the permeability coefficient of sand, initial dynamic shear force of bubble–slurry, and hydraulic gradient.

Roads are exposed to various degradation mechanisms during their lifetime. The pavement deterioration caused by the surrounding environment is particularly severe in winter when the humidity and subfreezing temperatures prevail. Frost heave-induced damage is one of the winter-related pavement deterioration. It occurs when the porewater in the soil is exposed to freezing temperatures. The study of frost heave requires conducting a multiphysics analysis, considering the thermal, mechanical, and hydraulic fields. This paper presents the use of a coupled thermo-mechanical approach to simulate frost heave in saturated soils. A function predicting porosity evolution is implemented to couple the thermal and mechanical field analyses. This function indirectly considers the effect of the water seepage inside the soil. Different frost heave scenarios with uniform and non-uniform boundary conditions are considered to demonstrate the capabilities of the method. The results of the simulations indicate that the thermo-mechanical model captures various processes involved in the frost heave phenomenon, such as water fusion, porosity variation, cryogenic suction force generation, and soil expansion. The characteristics and consequences of each process are determined and discussed separately. Furthermore, the results show that non-uniform thermal boundaries and presence of a culvert inside the soil result in uneven ground surface deformations.

The thermomechanical coupling of rocks refers to the interaction between the mechanical and thermodynamic behaviors of rocks induced by temperature changes. The study of this coupling interaction is essential for understanding the mechanical and thermodynamic properties of the surrounding rocks in underground engineering. In this study, an improved temperature-dependent linear parallel bond model is introduced under the framework of a particle flow simulation. A series of numerical thermomechanical coupling tests are then conducted to calibrate the micro-parameters of the proposed model by considering the mechanical behavior of the rock under different thermomechanical loadings. Good agreement between the numerical results and experimental data are obtained, particularly in terms of the compression, tension, and elastic responses of granite. With this improved model, the thermodynamic response and underlying cracking behavior of a deep-buried tunnel under different thermal loading conditions are investigated and discussed in detail.

High-rise intake towers in high-intensity seismic areas are prone to structural safety problems under vibration. Therefore, effective and low-cost anti-seismic engineering measures must be designed for protection. An intake tower in northwest China was considered the research object, and its natural vibration characteristics and dynamic response were first analyzed using the mode decomposition response spectrum method based on a three-dimensional finite element model. The non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II) was adopted to optimize the anti-seismic scheme combination by comprehensively considering the dynamic tower response and variable project cost. Finally, the rationality of the original intake tower antiseismic design scheme was evaluated according to the obtained optimal solution set, and recommendations for improvement were proposed. The method adopted in this study may provide significant references for designing anti-seismic measures for high-rise structures such as intake towers located in high-intensity earthquake areas.