Transport Properties of Steam Curing Concrete Using Mineral Admixtures

Steam curing has been used widely in the precast concrete industry. However, investigations on steam curing concrete focused mainly on their strength development. Research on durability of steam curing concrete, particularly on mixes using mineral admixtures, is somewhat limited. In this study, transport properties and mechanical properties of concretes using mineral admixtures under different steam curing conditions were measured. Normal Portland cement, high early strength Portland cement, ground granulated blast-furnace slag and fly ash were used. Steam curing conditions were varied by changing the preliminary curing time, temperature drop rate and curing method after steam curing. Transport properties, such as oxygen gas diffusion coefficient and water diffusion coefficient were measured. Moreover, mechanical properties, such as compressive strength, static elastic modulus and dynamic elastic modulus were measured. From the experimental result, the degree of the influence that the differences in steam curing conditions give to transport properties varies according to the types of binder. It was confirmed that transport properties might decrease remarkably in comparison with the case of a standard steam curing condition