Abstract
The environmental and economic concerns pertaining to the construction industry have necessitated the development of sustainable concrete. Durability and strength are the two primary properties which determine the sustainability of concrete. This study evaluated the performance of self-cured concrete produced from local vesicular basalt porous aggregates. The durability indicators, porosity, permeability and pore size of the hardened concrete, were obtained from the water sorptivity (water permeability under capillary action) test, the water permeability under pressure action test and the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area test and strength was evaluated in terms of compressive strength of concrete. The concrete specimens were produced with 10% porous vesicular basalt aggregate in replacement of coarse aggregate. The concrete specimens were tested at 3, 7 and 28 days. The self-curing effect on concrete strength was evaluated against water, air and membrane cured specimens, at surface/volume ratio of 26.4/40 and w/c ratio of 0.35/0.5. A 20% decrease in sorptivity coefficient, 10% increase in solid surface area and about 10% increase in compressive strength of the self-cured concrete was observed over the conventionally cured concrete. The study concludes that the addition of water-entrainment aggregates to concrete reduces water permeability, results in a finer pore structure of concrete and increases the quality and durability of concrete.
Highlights
Sustainable concrete can be developed through the selection of a sustainable production process and sustainable concrete ingredient materials, satisfying the environmental and socio-economic aspects of sustainability
A detailed experimental program has been planned in this study to investigate the effects of the self-curing method on the durability and mechanical properties of concrete prepared from the local water-entrainment aggregates and other materials
Partial water curing is important in self-curing concrete to prevent surface cracking due to drying shrinkage [61] and a minimum of 3 days partial water curing was selected in this study [62]
Summary
Sustainable concrete can be developed through the selection of a sustainable production process and sustainable concrete ingredient materials, satisfying the environmental and socio-economic aspects of sustainability. An important process in concrete casting, is the method of regulating the rate and extent of concrete moisture loss, both in depth and near the surface, during the hydration of cement. The conventional curing methods, such as the water curing method, are not very effective and sustainable for high performance concrete and for the durability of concrete requiring reduced porosity and water permeability. The conventional curing method, or water curing, is not a suitable curing method from a sustainability point of view, for concrete containing supplementary cementitious materials requires longer curing times (slower reactions). The self-curing, or internal-curing, method enables the curing of concrete both at depth and near the surface of concrete, for the proper development of strength and durability characteristics of different types of concrete. The self-curing method, using local water-entrainment aggregates, has the prospect and potentiality for the development of sustainable concrete. The porous water-entrainment aggregates operate as internal water reservoirs in the concrete, allowing the compensation of the evaporated
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