An Experimental Investigation on the Strength Properties of Self Curing Concrete by Using Super Absorbrnt Polymer

Abstract

The super absorbent polymer (SAP) has the nature of absorbing large amount of water and converts into gel and at the same time it swells or a large amount of volume change occurs when SAP reacted with water. Main SAP agent is sodium polyacrylate . These properties are very useful and effective in plain concrete. It is proved that it has many positive effects on the properties of concrete in both stages; 1.fresh concrete, 2. hardened concrete. Super absorbent polymer is mainly having the water tightness properties of plain concrete with time. The study includes short term and long term effect of the super absorbent polymer on the water sealing properties. Many advantages exist in the use of super absorbent polymer in plain concrete with internal water. This internal water source acts as internal curing agent after the final setting of concrete. At the same time the SAP releases water at relatively slower rate at the fresh concrete stage. The SAP also provides additional voids in the concrete. These voids affect the concrete strength negatively at the same time improve the concrete performance by improving the concrete workability and consistency, reducing the concrete susceptibility to freezing thawing cycle, and improving concrete stability. In this project we tried to study the behavior of super absorbent polymer in mechanical properties of compression, split tensile and flexural strength with internally cured concrete. An experiment has been carried out for M50 concrete using Super absorbent polymer of 0%,0.2%,0.3%,0.4% and 0.5% respectively. concrete cubes, cylinders and beams are casted and tested for 7 days and 28 days. The results are discussed in detailed and the compressive strength and split tensile strength greater for 0.2% of sap when compared with the remaining percentages of sap concrete. 0.2% of sap is optimum for the Beam of size 700X150X150 mm and shows the high flexural strength.