"A STUDY ON PROPERTIES OF SELF-CURING CONCRETE USING POLYETHYLENE GLYCOL-400"

U Choubey, Gajendra Raghuvanshi
2008 International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology   unpublished
As water is becoming a scarce material day-by-day, there is an urgent need to do research work pertaining to saving of water in making concrete and in constructions. Curing of concrete is maintaining satisfactory moisture content in concrete during its early stages in order to develop the desired properties. Curing of concrete plays a major role in developing the concrete microstructure and pore structure and hence improves its durability and performance. The use of self-curing admixtures is
more » ... y important from the point of view that saving of water is a necessity everyday (each 1m 3 of concrete requires 3m 3 of water in a construction, most of which is used for curing). Keeping importance to this, an attempt has been made to develop self-curing concrete by using water-soluble Polyethylene Glycol as self-curing agent. The function of self-curing agent is to reduce the water evaporation from concrete, and hence they increase the water retention capacity of concrete compared to the conventionally cured concrete. The present investigation involves the use of self-curing agent viz., polyethylene glycol (PEG) of molecular weight 400 (PEG-400) for dosages of 0%, 0.5%,1% and 2% by weight of cement added to mixing water in the concrete. Comparative studies were carried out for compressive strength for conventional and self-cured concrete mixture of M20, M30 and M40 grades at standard ages (7, 14 and 28 days). It was also found that 1% dosage of PEG-400 by weight of cement was optimum for M20, and M30 grade of concrete while 0.5 %dosage of PEG-400 was optimum for M40 grade concrete for achieving maximum strength without compromising workability.
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