Curing Methods and Their Effects on The Strength of Concrete

摘要

There are a lot of arguments on which method of curing concrete gives good strength. These different opinions results into this study, which aim at investigating the effects of different curing methods on the strength of concrete. Laboratory test was employed for this study. Normal concretes were prepared using specified mix ratio of 1:2:4 and 1:3:6. The cubes tested for compressive strength at 3, 7, 21, and 28 days of curing respectively using four curing methods namely immersion, sprinkling, polythene sheeting and sharp sand coating. Testing indicate that water immersion curing method as well as sprinkling (spraying ) methods of curing, provide better results than membrane (polythene sheeting) method of curing. While sharp sand gives least strength. The rate of drying was significant when the specimens were subjected to curing with polythene sheet method of curing. This thus hampered the hydration process and thus affected the compressive strength property of the hardened concrete. The overall findings of this study suggests that concrete should be cured by water immersion or spraying regularly to achieve a better compressive strength in concrete.