Effect of Curing Method on the Properties of Hardened Concrete

Abstract

At this paper, an experimental investigation was carried out to study the effect of different curing methods and water cement ratio on compressive strength, tension strength, flexural strength, and shrinkage. Four different curing methods  were under investigation: water curing (standard curing), sea water curing, air curing, and plastic bags curing. Moreover, the effect of water cement ratio of (0.4, 0.5, 0.6) on the previous properties of concrete were investigated under the different curing methods. The results indicate that the curing by sea water give almost the same results as the standard curing and better than the air curing; whereas, the plastic bags curing presents the least properties of concrete compared with others. On the other hand, decreasing the water cement ratio leads to increase the properties of concrete for all kinds of referenced curing.