3D-printable artificial marble

This paper presents the rheological and hardened properties of novel 3D-printable materials imitating structures of marble. The effects of mixed proportion on rheological behavior, kind of texture, setting time, density, compressive strength, water absorption, drying shrinkage, frost resistance are presented together. Two kinds of squeezing tests were used to evaluate the extrusion ability and shape stability of the fresh mixture. A high compression speed test using constant plate speed of 5 mm/s was implemented to simulate the behavior of the system in the process of extrusion. The squeezing test was conducted with a constant strain rate of 0.5 N/s as to model the behavior of the system in the process of multi-layer casting. Properties of the 3D-printable artificial marble were determined by Russian standards. The fresh mixtures of 3D-printable artificial marbles had plastic yield value of 1.2–3.5 kPa, structural strength of 1.2–3.3 kPa, the value of plastic deformations was 0.05–0.06 mm/mm. This defined the ability of these mixtures to plastically deform without structure destruction and hold their form, resist the deformation under compressions load during multi-layer casting. The received specimens of artificial marble resemble six kinds of textures of white and color marble. The 3D-printable artificial marble had high compressive strength (36–48 MPa and 55–68 MPa at 1 day and 28 days after production respectively), low water absorption (0.75 %), drying shrinkage (1.3–1.9 mm/m), high frost resistance and short setting time that determine the effectiveness of 3D-printed structures life cycle.