Effect of Type of Cement and Expansive Agent on the Hardening of Steam-Cured Concrete

Abstract

Pre-cast concrete products are sometimes manufactured in two cycles daily. It is ensured that they have the required strength at an early stage of demolding by increasing the steam curing temperature to reduce cost or increase productivity. However, the reduction in durability because of cracking due to thermal stress is a topic of concern. On the other hand, it has been known that fine blast-furnace-slag powder and expansive agents show high temperature dependence. Although they are used even in precast concrete products, the effect of steam curing on these materials is not known. Thus, in this study, the expression of compressive strength and expansion that are critical in improving the quality and productivity of precast concrete products was investigated, using high early-strength cement and two types of expansive agents, namely, ettringite-based and lime-based agents. Consequently, the strength expression was accelerated by the addition of expansive agent to ordinary cement and high early-strength cement. The extent of restrained expansion is greater for the lime-based expansive agent than for the ettringite-based expansive agent, and when an expansive agent is added to high early-strength cement, the extent of restrained expansion falls to a level lower than that in the case of ordinary cement.