Internal Curing of Low Water-Binder Ratio Concrete to Detract

Autogenous Shrinkage: An Emphatic Approach to Durability

Rajamane N.P. 1, Arvind Prakash Srivastava 2, Vasu Krishna 3

1. SRM University, Chennai

2. SRM University, Delhi-NCR campus, Ghaziabad
3. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Central University, Lucknow

ABSTRACT. Concrete having low water-binder ratio (usually High performance or High
Strength Concrete) contain insufficient mixing water to maintain water-filled coarse
capillaries needed to sustain hydration of the cement. Traditional external curing methods
like ponding, water spraying etc. may not be able to provide sufficient water for the complete
hydration of the cement. For this reason, it is generally accepted that method based on
additional supply of water (internal water supply or internal curing) is more effective for low
water-binder ratio concrete. Internal curing is preferred as it can minimise the self-desiccation
of the cement paste. This can outgrowth to low autogenous shrinkage and more durability in
the structures. This paper primarily deals with exigency of internal curing in low w/b
concrete; mechanism, materials methods of internal curing and its effect on properties of low
w/b concrete.
Keywords: Curing, Autogenous shrinkage, Mechanism, Material, Properties

Dr Rajamane N.P. is Head of Centre for Advanced Concrete Research at SRM University,
Chennai (T.N.).

Arvind Prakash Srivastava is an Assistant Professor in Department of Civil Engineering at

SRM University, Delhi-NCR Campus, Ghaziabad.

Er.Vasu Krishna is a graduate from SRM University and presently working as Estate
Officer (Civil) at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Central University, Lucknow.
 INTRODUCTION

After concrete is placed, satisfactory moisture content and temperature must be maintained, a
process called curing. Adequate curing is vital to quality of concrete. Curing has the strong
influence on the properties of hardened concrete such as durability, strength, water tightness,
volume stability and etc [1]. Exposed slab surfaces are especially sensitive to curing. Surface
strength development and impermeability can be reduced significantly when curing is
defective. An additional aspect of curing, which is sometime forgotten, is to minimise the
shrinkage.
Most of the traditional curing methods are based on externally applied curing. These methods
include water ponding, water spraying, wet burlap, curing compounds. Internal curing is
another concept of curing concrete, which is different from the external curing. Internal
curing means introducing a component within the concrete mixture which serves as a curing
agent [5]. This agent can be either a normal aggregate introduced in the concrete mixture in
any specific state or a new component such as any admixture. This process of internal curing
slackens the self-desiccation of the cement paste and help avoiding autogenous shrinkage [2].
Figure [1] shows the difference between ordinary water curing and IWC using pre-wetted
light aggregate.

Figure [1]: Conventional water curing and internal water curing

SELF-DESSICATION AND AUTOGENOUS SHRINKAGE

Withdrawal of water from the capillary pores by the hydration of the hitherto unhydrated
cement is called as self-desiccation. Due to this, considerable volume changes occur in the
concrete known as autogenous shrinkage and it occurs in practise in the interior of the
concrete mass. The contraction of the cement paste is restrained by the rigid skeleton of the
already hydrated cement paste and also by the aggregate particles [1]. Early-age cracking of
low water-binder concrete occurs due to the fact that the deformations are restrained [2] .
Autogenous shrinkage tends to increase at higher temperature, with higher cement content,
and possibly with fines cements [3]. Nevertheless, at very low water/cement ratios,
autogenous shrinkage is very high: a value of 700 X 10 -6 was reported for concrete with
water/cement ratio of 0.17 [3]. Autogenous shrinkage should be limited since it may induce
micro- or macro-cracking and may impair the concrete quality [2].

INTERNAL WATER CURING (IWC)

IWC counteracts the drying of the concrete that may be due to cementitious reactions at low
water-binder ratio. Concrete incorporated with IWC augment the internal relative humidity
during hydration and shrinkage resulting from self-desiccation is limited or avoided [5].
IWC of concrete requires some sort of water reservoir that can supply water to the cement
paste during its hydration. This water reservoir can be formed either before or after the start
of mixing. If the formation of the water reservoir occurs after mixing, it must be finished
before setting [5]. Then, after setting the stored water should be easily accessible for the
cementitious reactions. .The amount of internal curing water required to offset the self-
desiccation can be calculated with Power’s model [4]. According to this, approximate 40
kg/m3 internal curing water is required.
The water reservoir may function based on several different physical or chemical principals:

Chemically bound water

Physically bound water
Unbound or encapsulated water

Materials for Internal Water Curing

Bentonite Clay

These clay have high specific surface which enable them to adsorb several molecular of water
between their platelet structure [6]. These water are held by chemical bond and Bentonite
may swell up to 14 times its volume as a consequences of the water absorption. Strictly
speaking, Bentonite can be utilised as a water reservoir for IWC but in cementitious
materials, this clay may agglomerate to form dense compact structure interfering the strength
development of concrete [5].

Super-absorbent polymers (SAP)

SAP is a polymeric material which can absorb a significant amount of liquid from the
surrounding and retain the liquid within its structure without dissolving [7]. Water absorption
of SAP is based on secondary chemical bond, and the water is so loosely held that all of it
essentially can be considered as bulk water. SAP can be used as dry concrete admixture since
it takes up water during mixing process [4, 5]
 Figure [2]: Super absorbent polymer

Pre-wetted Light Weight Aggregate (LWA)

Early-age shrinkage may be harmful for the concrete, causing micro and macro-cracks and
potentially jeopardizing the durability. A solution to this problem, which tackles the
phenomenon directly and fundamentally, is to avoid or limit self-desiccation by entraining
additional water into the concrete in the form of saturated LWA. Storage of the LWA for 1
day under water before concrete mixing is an established practise in concrete technology [2].
Water absorption of LWA ranges from 5 to 20 percent by mass of the dry aggregate. When
hydration of cement in the concrete lowers the relative humidity of capillary pores in the
hardened cement paste, the water in the aggregate migrate outward into these capillaries. Use
of saturated LWA not only reduces the autogenous shrinkage it may even induce early-age
expansion [2]. For LWA to function successfully as an internal curing reservoir, the pores
containing the water must be larger than those in the surrounding cement paste, so that water
will preferentially move from the LWA to the hydrating cement [10]. Quality control of the
LWA should be as per ASTM C1761/ 1761 M-12

EFFECT OF INTERNAL CURING ON PROPERTIES OF CONCRETE

Rheology

According to Lo et al [11], the workability of the concrete is increased when the pre-wetting
time of the light weight aggregate increased. The use of the pre-wetted light weight aggregate
as a replacement of natural aggregate can prolong the slump loss. When the LWA are not
saturated, pumping compresses the air into LWA, the LWA suck water from the mix and the
concrete stiffens suddenly [12]. Concrete containing Super-Absorbent Polymer have similar
flow properties with concrete without Super Absorbent Polymer.

Strength
Referring to the influence of empty pores created during self-desiccation on the kinetics of
the hydration process and on the achievable final degree of hydration, Internal Curing is
beneficial in reaching improved strength of the concrete [13]. The improved strength is
attributed to the effect of internal curing whereby water from the aggregate is gradually
released into the concrete to further hydrate the cement paste. In addition to this, reduced
micro-cracking due to reduced autogenous shrinkage may also attribute to higher strength
development.
 Figure [3]: Strength of IWC vs externally cured concrete

There can be lower early age strength of IC concrete due to wet aggregate surface but
ultimate strength remains un-affected. Use of Super Absorbent Polymer has no effect on the
strength of the low water/ binder ratio Concrete [5]. Pre-wetting time of LWA also affect the
strength of the concrete [11]. Cube compressive strength of concrete increased from32.6 to
40.4 MPa after the LWA was pre-soaked for 1 hour.

Elastic properties

Stiffness of any concrete depends upon the stiffness of the various constituents and their
relative volumetric proportions in the mix. Considering concrete as a two phase material
consisting of coarse aggregate particles embedded in the mortar matrix, Young’s modulus of
concrete will decreases with a decrease in stiffness of the mortar and decrease in the stiffness
of the coarse aggregate. It implies that concrete made with light-weight aggregate have lesser
Young’s modulus value. Thus using LWA as internal curing agent will thus generally lead to
a decrease in the Young’s modulus of the concrete [15].

Drying Shrinkage

Internal relative humidity and the moisture content of IWC concrete are higher than in low
water-binder ratio concrete without IWC. Therefore, drying of concrete with IWC generally
takes longer and moisture loss is higher. Drying shrinkage is reduced when more LWA is
added and when more is contained in the LWA. Also drying shrinkage is higher in concrete
containing SAP than LWA for internal curing purposes.

Permeability

A reduction in permeability may be expected in internally cured concrete, especially at later

age, due to the de-percolation of capillary pores in the cement paste by the increased cement
hydration. Measurement of permeability in concrete with internal curing are reported in the
literature only for the case of LWA [5]. It may be noted that Permeability of low water-binder
ratio concrete with internal curing through LWA is controlled more by the quality of the
cement matrix than the LWA [5].

Fire Resistance

Fire can cause spalling [5] of the which could be risk for the IWC concrete as long as the
extra water, added for the reason of internal curing, is still available in the concrete. On
longer term, if the IWC is well designed, most of the extra water should be chemically bound
due to hydration, so that the risk on fire spalling most probably is not significantly
influenced. However, no test results on IWC concrete are available to give further evidence
on this.

CONCLUSION

In low water-binder ratio (w/b) matrices, chemical reactions lead to the development of the
capillary stresses that causes autogenous shrinkage. Conventional curing processes like water
ponding, spraying etc. are not sufficiently effective to combat autogenous shrinkages in low
w/b concrete. They may eliminate autogenous shrinkage in small cross section only, because
the penetration of external curing water is limited.

Autogenous shrinkage can be significantly reduced and even eliminated using internal water
curing method. This will ultimately lead to durable structure as micro-cracks will be
detracted.

Super Absorbent Polymers (SAP) and pre-wetted Light-Weight Aggregate (LWA) are the
most effective internal curing agent. The comparison between these two agent shows that
both lead to the reduction of the autogenous shrinkage but the magnitude may be different.

The effect of IWC on the fresh and hardened properties of the concrete is not well
documented in literature till now. However, from the very scarce results, it can be
summarised that IWC influences the fresh and hardened properties of concrete except the
drying shrinkage.

Using the IWC technique in combination with different chemical and admixtures, which are
the part of modern concrete industry, should be investigated in more detail.

REFERENCES

[1] NEVILLE A.M., 2012, Properties of concrete , Fourth Edition, Pearson Education Inc.,
pp. 318-353
[2] LURA P., 2003, Autogenous deformation and internal curing of concrete , DUP science,
pp. 11-34
[3] TAZAWA E., MIYAZAWA S., 1993, Autogenous shrinkage of concrete and its
importance in concrete, Proc. Of 5th International RILEM Symposium, pp. 159-68
[4] JANSEN O.M., HANSEN P.F., 2001, Water-entrained cement based material- I.
Principal and theoretical background, Cement and concrete research, 31(4) 647-654.
[5] RILEM, 2007, Internal curing of the concrete, RILEM TC196-ICC report, pp. 5-32
[6] TORIKAI Y., SATO S., OHASHI H, 1996, Thermodynamics properties of water in
compacted sodium montmorillonite, Nuclear Technology, 115(1), pp. 73-80
[7] BUCHCHOLZ F.L., GRAHAM A.T., 1998, Modern super-absorbent polymer
technology, WILEY-VCH, New York
[8] HENKENSEIFKEN R, NANTUNG T, WEISS J, 2011, Saturated LWA for internal
curing in low w/c mixtures: Monitoring water movement using X-ray absorption, Strain
(2011) 47, e432-441
[9] ASTM, 2013, Standard specification for Light weight aggregate for internal curing of
concrete, ASTM C1761/ 1761 M-12
[10] BENTZ D.P., WEISS J.W., 2011, Internal Curing: A 2010 state of the Art Review,
National Institute of Standard and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce.
[11] LO Y., GAO X.F., JEARY A.P., 1999, Micro-structure of pre-wetted aggregate on light
weight concrete, Building and Environment 34(6) 759-764.
[12] SMEPLASS S, 2000, Moisture in light weight aggregate-Practical consequences for the
production properties of light weight aggregate concrete, Proc. 2 nd International symposium
on structural light weight aggregate concrete, Norway, pp. 844-854
[13]PERSSON B., FAGURLUND G., 1997, Self-desiccation and its importance in concrete
technology, Lund Institute of Technology, Lund, Swedan
[14] AKCAY B., TASDEMIS A., Influence of lightweight aggregate on internal curing and
fracture of concrete, Proc. RILEM Conference on Volume Changes of Hardening Concrete:
Testing and Mitigation , 20-23 August 2006, pp. 31-40.
[15] LURA P., JENSEN O.M., BREUGAL K.V., 2003, Autogenous shrinkage in high-
performance cement paste: An evaluation of the basic mechanism, Cement and Concrete
Research, 33 (2003) 223-232.
[16] CHIA K.S., ZHANG M.H., 2002,Water permeability and chloride penetrability of high-
strength lightweight aggregate concrete, Cement and Concrete Research, 32(4) (2002) 639-
645
[17] BENTUR A., IAGARASHI S.I., KOVLER K., 2001, Prevention of autogenous
shrinkage in high strength concrete by internal curing using light weight wet aggregates,
Cement and Concrete Research, 31 (2001) 1587-1591.
[18] ZHUTOVSKY S., KOVLER K., BENTUR A., 2004, Influence of cement paste matrix
properties on the autogenous curing of high performance concrete, 2004, Cement and
Concrete Composites, 26 (5) (2004) 499-507