Durability assessment of Self-Curing high performance concretes containing zeolite admixture

Abstract

The infrastructural development activities are accompanied with construction of various facilities to provide safe and sustainable livelihood to the society. Concrete being one of the most extensively used construction material, there has been a growing demand in terms of consumption of cement fine aggregate, coarse aggregate and water. There have been numerous attempts to utilize alternate binding materials as a partial replacement of cement. Scarcity in aggregates are also being addressed through alternate filler materials like manufactured sand or artificial aggregates. Water scarcity in many locations has been forcing the researchers to look for alternate methods of curing either through addition of self-curing compounds or through coatings which doesn’t permit the internal water to evaporate. There have been numerous attempts to quantify the functioning characteristics of the selfcuring mortars and self-curing concretes. However, the research on zeolite as admixture in self-curing concrete have not been addressed to a great extent. The current work was focused to study the durability aspects of self-curing concretes containing calcined zeolite and uncalcined zeolite as a partial replacement of cement. A relative comparison of performance characteristics of air cured self-curing concretes with conventional concrete cured in water have been presented. Also, attempts were made to evaluate the corrosion characteristics of embedded reinforcement through half-cell potential measurements. The extensive study on these proposed concretes revealed the fact, that it is possible to develop high strength concretes without conventional curing practices. However, these concretes had superior durability characteristics which was witnessed through resistivity, rapid chloride penetration test (rcpt) and cyclic wet and dry test.