Study of Properties of Self Curing Concrete using Light Weight Fine Aggregate and Polymeric Glycol-600

Curing of concrete is maintaining satisfactory moisture content in concrete during its early stages in order to develop the desired properties. However, good curing is not always practical in many cases. The concept of self-curing agents is to reduce the water evaporation from concrete, and hence increase the water retention capacity of concrete compared to conventional concrete. It was found that water soluble polymers can be used as self-curing agents in concrete. 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 very important from the point of view that water resources are getting valuable every day. Each 1m3 of concrete requires about 3m3 of water for construction, most of which is for curing. The aim of the investigation is to evaluate the use of water-soluble polymeric glycol as self-curing agent with partial replacement of conventional fine aggregate with light weight fine aggregate and to optimise the quantity of poly ethylene glycol. Self-curing concrete of M25 grade were caste by replacing fine aggregate with 25% light weight fine aggregate whose water absorption property is high and by varying quantity of polymeric glycol by 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8%, 1%, 1.2%, and 1.4%. The optimum % of poly ethylene glycol was found as 1%. In this study, compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength of self-curing concrete with varying quantity of polymeric glycol is evaluated and compared with the conventional concrete specimens.