Effects of curing regimes on the physico-mechanical properties of self-compacting concrete made with ternary sands

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of curing regimes on the physico-mechanical properties of self-compacting concrete (SCC) made with ternary sands in order to valorize local materials, reuse of industrial wastes and to benefit from their properties for the composition of SCC. Three types of sands were used in ternary combinations: river sand (RS), crushed sand (CS) and dune sand (DS). First, we started by the measurement of the porosity of seven ternary combinations of sand (RS-CS-DS), included the 100%RS as reference combination. Subsequently, the rheological characteristics of SCCs in fresh state are characterized and analyzed. Finally, studying the effects of curing regimes (three regimes were used: wrapped in a plastic sheet, water curing and air curing) on the compressive strength of SCC made with different systems of ternary sands. The obtained results proved that beyond 40% of RS substitution by (CS + DS); the porosity of the sand mixture is increased. The porosity of the combination C2 (60% RS + 20% CS + 20% DS) is lower than those of the other combinations. In addition, the rheological properties of SCC are decreased, which requires the additional quantities of water or superplasticizer to meet the self-compacting properties. Whatever the curing regimes, we can say that the partial replacement of RS by (20% CS + 20% DS) offers the best compressive strength at all ages and gives good rheological characteristics to the SCC. The use of ternary sand (C2) also contributes to the improvement of SCC compactness. The results show that the water curing as well as wrapped curing provide better results than air curing.