Behavior of drying and plastic shrinkage of Portland cement concrete prepared and cured under harsh field

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The shrinkage of concrete is crucial under aggressive environmental conditions to avoid short and long-term deterioration. ACI committee for hot weather concreting specifies 35 °C as the maximum limit of fresh concrete to mitigate problems associated with that. This paper aims to investigate the plastic and drying shrinkage characteristics and compressive strength development of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) by varying w/c (0.3–0.45), casting temperatures (25–45 °C), and curing methods. The results demonstrated that the characteristics of concrete are significantly influenced by w/c, as well as the conditions at which they are cast and cured. In general, the plastic/drying shrinkage strains were observed to be minimum, while compressive strength was maximum when mixtures were cast at an ambient temperature of 32 °C. An increase in the w/c results in a corresponding rise in plastic/drying shrinkage strain, coupled with a decrease in the compressive strength of the mixtures. In addition, application of curing compound was found most effective in the field for enhancing the shrinkage characteristics whilst wet burlap practice was found beneficial in long-term compressive strength gain. These findings will enhance the optimization of mix designs for harsh conditions, improve construction efficiency, and support long-term concrete structure performance and sustainability.