Study on Applicability of Maturity Theory to Predict Concrete Compressive Strength under Non-standard Curing Condition

Abstract

The curing temperature of the actual construction site, which has a greater impact on the concrete strength, often fails to meet the standard requirements. This paper studies the effect of curing temperature on concrete compressive strength from the perspective of maturity by designing four curing conditions including standard curing, high temperature curing in summer, low temperature curing in winter, and natural curing, using the artificial climate simulation room. The result shows that the relationship between compressive strength and maturity of concrete under the standard curing condition is basically in accordance with the hyperbolic model, which can be used to predict the compressive strength at different ages; however, when the curing temperature and the standard curing temperature are quite different, the hyperbolic model is no longer applicable; at this point, direct prediction of concrete compressive strength using maturity will lead to significant errors. Therefore, it is necessary to further establish a theoretical model of maturity that takes into consideration the effect of temperature in order to predict the compressive strength of concrete more accurately.