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Hydration kinetics of high-performance cementitious systems under different curing conditions

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Abstract

Curing plays an essential role in the modern concrete technology, since it has a crucial effect on the development of concrete properties. High-performance cementitious systems are especially sensitive to the applied curing methods because of self-desiccation and high sensitivity to early-age cracking. Thus, it is of particular interest to compare the efficiency of internal curing and traditional curing techniques such as sealing and water ponding. In this study, the efficiency of different types of curing was estimated by means of isothermal calorimetry. Four different water to cement (w/c) ratios in the range of 0.21–0.45 and four types of curing were studied, including sealing, water ponding with different amount of water, internal curing by saturated lightweight aggregate and super-absorbent polymer. The hydration degree was determined using heat of hydration data. Compressive strength of the tested specimens was measured and analyzed. The results indicate that efficiency of different types of curing strongly depends on w/c ratio.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development, and Jewish Communities of Germany Research Fund for supporting the study. The assistance of Dr. Dmitry Mologin in carrying out of the experiments is greatly acknowledged.

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  1. National Building Research Institute, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, 32000, Haifa, Israel

    Semion Zhutovsky & Konstantin Kovler

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  1. Semion Zhutovsky
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  2. Konstantin Kovler
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Correspondence to Semion Zhutovsky.

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Zhutovsky, S., Kovler, K. Hydration kinetics of high-performance cementitious systems under different curing conditions. Mater Struct 46, 1599–1611 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-012-0001-5

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