STUDY ON PROPERTIES OF SELF CURING CONCRETE

Abstract

The increase in population has resulted in a rapid increase of construction activities and also caused an imbalance in water management, water being a major requirement in construction used in mixing and curing of concrete and governs hydration of cement. Majority of the water is used in curing of concrete, conventional curing is carried out from the exposed part of concrete to its inner part whereas the contrast is performed at self-curing which also helps in minimizing the wastage of water, where the hydration of cement occurs due to additional water available which is not part of the mixing water. The present study reviews mechanism of self-curing, different self-curing methods and various researches and their impact on utilization of PEG-400 as self-curing agent in order to produce eco-friendly self curing concrete. The curing of concrete requires high water demand. In this study reinforcement corrosion protection of self-curing concrete (SC) mixtures incorporating two water-soluble polymers; polyethylene glycol (PEG) and polyacrylamide (PAM) have been evaluated. Durability indices, electrical resistivity, chloride ion penetrability and water permeability, were evaluated and compared to that of control concrete mixture with no self-curing agents under different curing regimes. Self-curing concrete represents a step towards a new construction material due to its lower demand for curing water and hence can reserve the limited water resources in many parts of the world.