Influence of Curing Practices and Environment on Compressive Strength De-velopment of High Strength Concrete

Abstract

The paper presents the impact of practicing curing techniques on the compressive strength evolution of ternary blended high strength concrete under local prevailing environmental conditions. Initially the control mix was designed using the guidelines of IS: 10262:2009, whose compressive strength at 28 days is greater than 70 MPa. Later mechanical properties of high strength concrete after incorporating the alternative binder materials was evaluated. For all mixtures water to cement ratio was kept as 0.25. For the purpose of improving the mechanical properties of control mix and to achieve the economy slag, fly ash, quartz powder and silica fume were incorporated in the mix as partial substitution of cement. Total replacement with supplementary binders was kept at 20% by its weight of cement. Among all the combinations, silica fume and slag combination performed well in respect to the hardened properties. Subsequently, the same mix was considered in order to study the influence of practicing curing methods. From the results it was concluded that although type of curing regime on strength development both in indoor and outdoor environment at early ages was not considerable but at the later ages the effect was considerable. Compressive strength of specimens subjected to sprinkling, burlap and plastic cover curing in outdoor environment are significantly affected than the corresponding specimens in indoor environment.