Leveraging internal curing effect of fly ash cenosphere for alleviating autogenous shrinkage in 3D printing

•Perforated fly ash cenospheres (PFACs) were used as an internal curing agent for developing printable cement-based materials.•Internal curing effect of PFACs can alleviates autogenous shrinkage strain by 81% in 3D printing component.•Effect of PFACs on the rheology of limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) was evaluated.•Fiber Bragg Grating technology was adopted to study autogenous shrinkage by monitoring the interlayer strain.•Incorporating 15 vol% PFAC to replace sand gives LC3 exceptional resistance to autogenous shrinkage and printability.