Effect of curing treatments on the material properties of hardened self-compacting concrete

This paper presents a study of the properties and behavior of self-compacting concretes (SCC) in the hot climate. The effect of curing environment and the initial water curing period on the properties and behavior of SCC such as compressive strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) and sorptivity of the SCC specimens were investigated. Three Water/Binder (W/B) ratios (0.32, 0.38 and 0.44) have been used to obtain three ranges of compressive strength. Five curing methods have been applied on the SCC by varying the duration and the conservation condition of SCC. The results obtained on the compressive strength show that the period of initial water curing of seven days followed by maturation in the hot climate is better in comparison with the four other curing methods. The coefficient of sorptivity is influenced by W/B ratio and the curing methods. It is also shown that the sorptivity coefficient of SCC specimens is very sensitive to the curing condition. The SCC specimens cured in water present a low coefficient of sorptivity regardless of the ratio W/B. Furthermore, the results show that there is a good correlation between ultrasonic pulse velocity and the compressive strength.