Special Issue:3D Concrete Printing: Low-Carbon Fabrication and Construction for Extreme Environments
July 13, 2026

Special Issue:3D Concrete Printing: Low-Carbon Fabrication and Construction for Extreme Environments

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Journal of the Asian Concrete Federation (ACF Journal), we are pleased to announce a Special Issue themed 3D Concrete Printing: Low-Carbon Fabrication and Construction for Extreme Environments, organized under the auspices of the ACF Technical Committee on 3D Concrete Printing Technology.
3D concrete printing (3DCP) eliminates traditional formwork and delivers remarkable advantages in automated construction, free-form structural fabrication, on-site rapid deployment and construction waste reduction. Against the global pursuit of carbon neutrality and the rising demand for infrastructure serving harsh and extraterrestrial environments, two core research branches have emerged as critical frontiers: low-carbon additive manufacturing of printable cementitious composites, and 3D printing technologies tailored for diverse extreme construction scenarios.
The scope covers two independent yet interconnected research focuses: (1) Low-carbon 3D concrete fabrication: focusing on waste valorization, low-carbon binders, carbon sequestration and life-cycle emission reduction for printable materials and printing workflows; (2) 3D printing for extreme environments: covering terrestrial harsh sites, underwater engineering and extraterrestrial construction such as lunar habitat manufacturing, which demands specialized printable materials, adaptive printing equipment and environmental-resistant structural systems.
This Special Issue aims to gather cutting-edge original research, comprehensive reviews and invited technical papers bridging material innovation, printing machinery, structural performance, digital control and full-scale engineering demonstration. We welcome contributions from researchers and industrial practitioners across all ACF member economies and worldwide.

Scope and Topics

Contributions are welcome on topics including, but not limited to:

1. Low-Carbon 3D Concrete Printing Materials & Fabrication Technologies

  • Low-clinker, alkali-activated, geopolymer and bio-based low-carbon printable binders
  • High-volume incorporation of industrial solid waste, construction & demolition recycled aggregates in printable mixtures
  • CO₂ mineralization, in-situ carbon capture and negative-carbon printable concrete formulations
  • Rheology, buildability, open time and interlayer bonding optimization of low-carbon printing mortars
  • Life cycle assessment, carbon footprint quantification and whole-process decarbonization strategies for 3DCP
  • Waste-free printing process design and circular economy solutions for additive construction

2. Terrestrial Extreme Environment 3D Printing Technologies

  • Printing materials and process regulation for high-temperature arid zones, cold plateaus, freeze-thaw alpine regions, high-salt coastal and corrosive onshore environments
  • Anti-freezing, anti-evaporation, anti-chloride erosion and anti-drying shrinkage printable material design
  • Unmanned robotic printing and rapid emergency construction for post-disaster inaccessible sites
  • Climate-adaptive intelligent printing parameter control systems for variable harsh terrestrial conditions

3. Underwater & Subsea 3D Printing Engineering

  • Anti-scour, high-water-pressure resistant printable cementitious composites for marine and underwater applications
  • Underwater extrusion curing control, interlayer bonding improvement and submerged printing equipment development
  • Offshore breakwaters, underwater tunnels, marine artificial reefs and subsea infrastructure fabricated via 3DCP
  • Long-term seawater erosion resistance and durability design of underwater printed structures

4. Extraterrestrial Additive Manufacturing: Lunar & Space 3D Printing

  • Lunar regolith-based printable building composites, space low-pressure vacuum curing mechanisms
  • Radiation-shielding 3D printed habitat structures for lunar surface construction
  • Low-energy in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) printing technologies for extraterrestrial bases
  • Vacuum, extreme temperature cycling and micro-meteorite resistant design of lunar printed components

5. Structural Performance & Digital Design of 3D Printed Components

  • Anisotropic mechanical properties, long-term durability and fatigue performance of printed structures under multi-factor coupled loads
  • Biomimetic lattice, functionally graded and lightweight structural design for low-carbon and extreme service demands
  • Fiber/textile/steel integrated reinforcement technologies for terrestrial, underwater and lunar printed structures
  • Numerical simulation, data-driven constitutive modeling and AI performance prediction of printed elements

6. Intelligent Printing Equipment, Digital Twin & NDT Monitoring

  • Portable mobile printing robots, underwater printing platforms and extraterrestrial compact printing systems
  • Multi-robot collaborative printing, digital twin real-time monitoring and online defect correction
  • Generative design, toolpath optimization and material-saving printing algorithm development
  • Non-destructive testing and long-term structural health monitoring for 3D printed extreme-environment infrastructures

7. Engineering Demonstration, Standardization & Industrial Translation

  • Full-scale demonstration projects of low-carbon 3D printed buildings, bridges and shelters
  • Prototype lunar habitat and underwater 3D printed marine structure pilot tests
  • Comparative analysis of construction cost, efficiency and carbon emissions between 3DCP and conventional cast-in-place methods
  • Test standards, design specifications and code calibration for low-carbon and extreme-environment 3D printed concrete

Conventional experimental and analytical studies that produce design models or datasets relevant to the above themes are explicitly welcome — the Special Issue intends to bridge data and mechanics, not replace one with the other.

Guest Editors

Prof. Li Wang — Lead Guest Editor & Secretary of ACF Technical Committee on 3D Concrete Printing Technology, School of Civil Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, China (wangli@hebut.edu.cn)

Prof. Shunzhi Qian — Co Guest Editor & Secretary of ACF Technical Committee on 3D Concrete Printing Technology, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (szqian@ntu.edu.sg)

Under the auspices of the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Caijun Shi (Hunan University), and the ACF Journal Editorial Board. This Special Issue is organized in connection with ACF Technical Committee TC-3DCP (3D Concrete Printing Technology)..

Submission Guidelines
  • Submission portal (ScholarOne / Manuscript Central): https://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/acf — during submission, select the Special Issue category “3D Concrete Printing” (exact category label to be confirmed by the journal admin).
  • Article types: technical papers, invited papers, and review papers.
  • Files to upload (double-blind review): (1) cover letter; (2) a separate title page; (3) a blinded full manuscript; (4) optionally, a list of at least three suggested reviewers (independent of the authors).
  • Manuscript format: Microsoft Word (PDF not accepted); Times New Roman 11 pt, double-spaced, single column; A4 with 20 mm margins; page and line numbers; SI units. Title ≤ 80 characters, abstract ≤ 200 words, ≤ 6 keywords. Number references [1], [2] in ACF style. Include a CRediT authorship-contribution statement, a competing-interest declaration, and disclosure of any generative-AI use.
  • Templates & forms: the ACF Manuscript Template 2.0, Cover Letter, and Publication-Ethics document are provided together with this call.
  • Open access: all articles are published open access with no submission or article-processing charges.

Full author instructions: ACF Journal — Author's Guide.

Important Dates

(Proposed — to be confirmed with the editorial office.)

Call for papers opens      July 2026

Full manuscript submission deadline       31 December 2026

Peer review & revisions      July 2026 – December 2026

Expected publication       2027

Contact
  • Lead Guest Editor: Li Wang (Hebei University of Technology) — wangli@hebut.edu.cn
  • Co-Guest Editor: Shunzhi Qian (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) — szqian@ntu.edu.sg
  • Journal / Editorial Office: Zhenguo Shi (Managing Editor, Hunan University) — zshi@hnu.edu.cn; editorial support — acf2023.acf2023@gmail.com

We look forward to your contributions to this Special Issue.

With warm regards,

Prof. Li Wang & Prof. Shunzhi Qian — Guest Editors