The aims of this work were to investigate the printability of high-fraction wood and sodium-silicate composites (WSSC) for additive manufacturing and to develop a screw extrusion-based process to demonstrate this approach for building construction applications. A custom additive manufacturing system was fabricated, and mixtures of 40%–60% wood fiber and 60%–40% sodium silicate were printed. The printability of these formulations was determined by observing their viscosity, extrudability, print-bed and layer adhesion, and curing characteristics. Fiber to resin ratios of 45:55 to 50:50 were the most suitable for printing. The printability was also affected by printing temperature and nozzle travel speed. The mechanical properties of printed and cured WSSC, were determined by three-point bending, tensile, and compression testing. Tensile strength, bending strength, and elastic modulus were found to be comparable to those of 3D printed concrete and other wood-plastic composites reported in the literature. The WSSC was successfully printed into a panel indicating promise for use in additive manufacturing.

The indentation size effect has been linked to the generation of geometrically necessary dislocations that may be impacted by intrinsic materials properties, such as stacking fault energy, and extrinsic defects, such as statistically stored dislocations. Nanoindentation was carried out at room temperature and elevated temperatures on four different metals in a variety of microstructural conditions. A size effect parameter was determined for each material set combining the effects of temperature and existing dislocation structure. Extrinsic defects, particularly dislocation density, dominate the size effect parameter over those due to intrinsic properties such as stacking fault energy. A multi-mechanism description using a series of mechanisms, rather than a single mechanism, is presented as a phenomenological explanation for the observed size effect in these materials. In this description, the size effect begins with a volume scale dominated by sparse sources, next is controlled by the ability of dislocations to cross-slip and multiply, and then finally at larger length scales work hardening and recovery dominate the effect.