Fresh, Strength and Confinement Behaviour of Self-Curing Self-Compacting Concrete Using Polyethylene Glycol

- A lot of research work has been going on in the field of concrete and constant efforts are going on to improve its performance with respect to strength and durability. One of major considerations in concrete making is gaining control on water. The water supplied during mixing in concrete is needed to hydrate the cement and to achieve the required rheology properties of various concrete materials in their mixing, transportation, placing and compacting. During hydration, there is a need to maintain a correct relative humidity and temperature for developing good concrete. Decrease in relative humidity will cause self desiccation or chemical shrinkage at micro level. To prevent the above problem, it is advised to make embedded water available for curing. There are a number of methods for providing embedded water for curing viz., using light weight aggregate, super absorbent polymers and hydrophilic materials.