ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL CONCRETE ABSTRACTS PORTAL

  • The International Concrete Abstracts Portal is an ACI led collaboration with leading technical organizations from within the international concrete industry and offers the most comprehensive collection of published concrete abstracts.

International Concrete Abstracts Portal

  


Title: Influence of Curing Methods on Moisture Loss and Drying Shrinkage of Shotcrete at Early Age

Author(s): Bruce Menu, Thomas Jacob-Vaillancourt, Marc Jolin, and Benoit Bissonnette

Publication: Materials Journal

Volume: 117

Issue: 4

Appears on pages(s): 95-103

Keywords: cracking; curing; drying; evaporation; moisture loss; shotcrete; shrinkage; surface protection

DOI: 10.14359/51724624

Date: 7/1/2020

Abstract:
The experimental program reported in this paper sought to evaluate the efficiency of a range of curing methods in view of minimizing the evaporation rate at the surface of freshly placed shotcrete and preventing the detrimental consequences of early-age shrinkage. CSA A23.1-14 states that severe drying conditions should be considered to exist when the surface moisture evaporation rate exceeds 0.50 kg/m2/h (0.1 lb/ft2/h). In fact, the environmental conditions that lead to such evaporation rates are regularly experienced on construction sites, requiring that adequate protection of the concrete surface be carried out in a timely manner after placement. This research effort is aimed at quantifying the influence of selected curing methods upon the early-age moisture loss and the resulting shrinkage. The results show that early-age volume change of freshly sprayed shotcrete can be significantly reduced by adequate surface protection. Among the investigated methods, moist curing is found to be the most effective.