Study on Strength Characteristics of Self Curing Concrete by Partial Replacement of Cement With Alccofine

Curing of concrete plays a major role in developing the concrete microstructure and pore structure and hence improves its durability and performance.Keeping importance to this, an attempt has been made to develop internal-curing concrete by using Poly Ethylene Glycol (PEG-400).In this experimental investigation the strength characteristics of concrete cast with the self-curing agent PEG-400 and partially replacing cement with Alccofine have been studied and compared with the corresponding conventionally cured concrete.For producing internal-curing concrete trial dosage of 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% of PEG-400 by weight of cement was used and tested for mechanical properties such as compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength for 3 days, 7 days,28 days and 56 days to find the optimum percentage.Then, Alccofine based selfcuring concrete was produced by using the self-curing agent with the optimum percentage and Alccofine in varying percentages of 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% and its mechanical properties were tested.It was found that 1.0% of PEG400 by weight of cement was optimum for M25 grade concrete for achieving maximum strength without compromising workability.It was observed that after implementation of new technique the water consumption for curing was significantly reduced by 100%.It was also observed that the Alcoffine increases the strength and workability to a large extent at 15% replacement level of cement.