Against the backdrop of “New Engineering” disciplines, the cultivation of interdisciplinary talents has become an inevitable choice for national development. Intelligent construction has become a new paradigm of interdisciplinary civil engineering. Therefore, the developmental needs of the new era have put forward higher requirements for education institutions to cultivate high-quality talents, and thus, traditional teaching modes must be reformed and innovated. Integrating newer technologies in experimental teaching is the new direction of experimental teaching reform.

By integrating cement-based 3D printing technology in rock mechanics experimental teaching, the entire experimental teaching process incorporates teaching content from three disciplines. The first involves civil engineering materials course content, evaluating the rheological properties of printed materials by testing their setting time, slump, and spread. The second discipline involves additive manufacturing course content, evaluating the printability of materials by using CAD for three-dimensional solid modeling, and testing the extrusion, construction, and deformation performances of printed materials. The last discipline involves the rock mechanics course content, producing standard rock mechanics specimens for testing their density, wave velocity, compressive strength, and other physical and mechanical properties after printing. To realize the above experimental purposes, the corresponding experimental materials and teaching content have been designed.

The experimental case provides test results for the setting time, slump, and spread of printing materials, which demonstrate good extrusion, construction, and deformation performances of printed materials. Physical mechanical experiments are conducted on printed rock-like specimens to obtain stress-strain curves and relevant physical mechanical parameters. Compared with traditional rock mechanics experimental teaching, the entire experimental teaching process offers the following advantages. First, it enriches the content of experimental teaching, strengthens the integration of various courses, enriches the content of experimental teaching, and promotes the integration of various courses. Second, it enhances students' hands-on ability and cultivates their innovation consciousness by allowing students to autonomously select printing materials, design printing models, optimize printing paths, and produce uniaxial compression specimens through printing. The entire process cultivates students' hands-on ability and independent innovation ability, increases students' sense of participation and achievement in the entire experimental process, and stimulates students' exploration interests. Third, it improves the quality of experimental teaching and reduces the cost of experimental teaching. The self-made rock-like specimens through cement-based 3D printing can save the costs associated with specimen preparation and reduce the workload of laboratory teachers. In addition, this experiment can also integrate concrete material experimental teaching with additive manufacturing-related experimental teaching, thus reducing the cost of experiments, improving experimental efficiency, and enhancing experimental teaching quality.

Therefore, the integration of cement-based 3D printing technology into rock mechanics experimental teaching can significantly reduce experimental costs, improve experimental efficiency, and enhance teaching quality. It is highly significant to enhance students' hands-on ability, innovative thinking, and scientific literacy. Further, experimental teaching reforms and innovations can cultivate interdisciplinary talents in civil engineering.