An Experimental Comparative Study between Water Based Acrylic Polymer Curing compound and Conventional Curing Procedure for High Strength Concrete.

Concrete is an essential building material which is widely used in construction industry all over the world due to its compressive strength. Curing of concrete plays a vital role in durability and other performance necessities. Improper curing can affect the performance and durability easily. Conditions where scarcity of water prevails, and accessibility of structure for external curing becomes difficult, it becomes essential to seek for alternative means of curing. This work thrust for an alternative procedure of curing by using external curing compound. Concrete curing compound consist essentially of waxes, natural and synthetic resins, and solvents of high volatility at atmospheric temperatures. The compound forms a moisture retentive film shortly after being applied on fresh concrete surface. White or gray pigments are often incorporated to provide heat reflection and to make the compound visible on the structure for inspection. The research work consist of i) Development of high strength concrete using OPC53 grade cement and locally available coarse aggregate and fine aggregate and using super plasticizer as admixture. ii) Casting of concrete samples and adopting different curing methods as wet pond curing, in air dry curing, alternative dry and wet curing and using curing compound. iii) Casted samples were tested for flexural strength, shear strength iv) Results of tested samples were tabulate and discussed over the result of achieving the strength in 3, 7, 28 days by different curing methods.