• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.387-405
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• 2018

Geopolymer concrete is a fastest developing field of research for utilizing industrial and agro waste materials as an alternative for Portland cement based concrete. Geopolymers are formed by the alkaline activation of aluminosilicates rich materials termed as geopolymerization. The process of geopolymerization requires elevated temperature curing which restricts its application to precast industry. This review summarizes the work carried out on developing the geopolymer concrete with the addition of various mineral admixtures at ambient curing temperature conditions. An overview of studies promoting the geopolymer concrete in general building construction is presented. Literature study revealed that geopolymer concrete with the addition of admixtures can exhibit desirable properties at ambient temperature conditions.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.127-140
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• 2021

In this study, twenty-five geopolymer (GP) mixes were prepared by varying the alkaline solids to Metakaolin (MK) and sodium silicate to NaOH ratios from 0.1 to 0.5 and 0.2 to 1.0, respectively, thus giving a wide range of molar ratios of silica to alumina, sodium oxide to alumina and water to sodium oxide. The compressive strength of these GP mixes was determined for four curing schemes involving oven curing at 100℃ for 24 h and three ambient curing with the curing ages of 3, 14, and 28 days. The test results revealed that for the manufacture of GP binder for structural applications of strength up to 90 MPa, the molar ratio of silica to alumina should be greater than 2.3, sodium oxide to alumina should be between 0.6 to 1.2, and water to sodium oxide should not exceed 12. The compressive strength of ambient cured GP mortar gets stabilized at 28 days of ambient curing. Experimental findings were also corroborated by GP microstructure analysis. The embodied energy of MK-based GP mortars, especially of high strength, is significantly less than the cement mortar of equivalent strength.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.683-688
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• 2017

This paper presents the experimental investigations on the compressive strength and permeation properties of geopolymer concrete prepared with low calcium fly ash as the primary binder activated with different percentage of Alccofine. The durability aspect was investigated by performing permeable voids and water absorption tests since permeability directly influences the durability properties. The test results show that Alccofine significantly improves the compressive strength and reduces the water permeability thus enhances the durability of geopolymer concrete at ambient curing regime which encourages the use of geopolymer concrete at ambient curing condition thus promising its use in general construction also.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.309-324
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• 2024

Internal curing, a widely used method for mitigating early-age shrinkage in concrete, also offers notable advantages for concrete durability. This paper explores the potential of internal curing by partial replacement of sand with fine lightweight aggregate for enhancing the behavior of high-performance concrete at elevated temperatures. Such a technique may prove economical and safe for the construction of skyscrapers, where explosive spalling of high-performance concrete in fire is a potential hazard. To reach this aim, the physico-mechanical features of internally cured high-strength concrete specimens, including mass loss, compressive strength, strain at peak stress, modulus of elasticity, stress-strain curve, toughness, and flexural strength, were investigated under different temperature exposures; and to predict some of these mechanical properties, a number of equations were proposed. Based on the experimental results, an advanced stress-strain model was proposed for internally cured high-performance concrete at different temperature levels, the results of which agreed well with the test data. It was observed that the replacement of 10% of sand with pre-wetted fine lightweight expanded clay aggregate (LECA) not only did not reduce the compressive strength at ambient temperature, but also prevented explosive spalling and could retain 20% of its ambient compressive strength after heating up to 800℃. It was then concluded that internal curing is an excellent method to enhance the performance of high-strength concrete at elevated temperatures.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.89 no.4
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• pp.335-347
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• 2024

This study pioneers the exploration of creep and shrinkage behavior in ambient-cured geopolymer concrete (GPC), a vital yet under-researched area in concrete technology. Focusing on the influence of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution concentration, the research utilizes low calcium fly ash (Class-F) and alkaline solutions to prepare two sets of GPC. The results show distinct patterns in compressive strength development and dry shrinkage reduction, with a 14 M NaOH solution demonstrating a 26.5% lower dry shrinkage than the 16 M solution. The creep behavior indicated a high initial strain within the first 7 days, significantly influenced by curing conditions and NaOH concentration. This study contributes to the existing knowledge by providing a deeper understanding of the time-dependent properties of GPC, which is crucial for optimizing its performance in structural applications.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.157-166
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• 2018

This article presents the flexural behaviour of reinforced fly ash (FA)-based geopolymer concrete (GPC) beams with partial replacement of FA for about 10% by weight with paper sludge ash (PSA). The beams were made of M35 grade concrete and cured under three curing conditions for comparison viz., ambient curing, external exposure curing, and oven curing at $60^{\circ}C$. The beams were experimentally tested at the 28th day of casting after curing by conducting two-point loading flexural test. Performance aspects such as load carrying capacity, first crack load, load-deflection and moment-curvature behaviours of both types of beams were experimentally studied and their results were compared under different curing conditions. To verify the response of reinforced GPC beams numerically, an ANSYS 13.0 finite element program was also used. The result shows that there is a good agreement between computer model failure behaviour with the experimental failure behaviour.

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.12-17
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• 2013

Curing methods for denial resin-based materials are limited because of the need to polymerize quickly in the oral cavity at an ambient temperature. At present, most dental restorative composites use a camphorquinone-amine complex initiation, visible light-cure, one-component systems. Clinically, it is important to try to optimize the degree of conversion of res in composites using proper manipulation and adequate light-curing techniques to ensure the best outcome.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.93-102
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• 1998

In electric cable industries, the curing extent of the rubber materials covering the electric cores gives an significant effect on their final performance. The curing extent of rubber is controlled mostly by pull-out velocity of cable in the extrusion process. The final curing extent may be different for different radial positions inside the rubber because of the non-uniform temperature distributions during the curing process. In this contribution, the prediction of curing extent distribution throughout the radial direction of rubber is represented when the cable is passing through the steam curing zone with a fixed pull-out velocity. The prediction of the optimum pull-out velocity for the desired curing extent distribution is also reported. The steady-state heat balance was developed for the curing and cooling processes in which the pull-out rubber was cured by high temperature steam and then cooled by ambient water. A few essential material properties such as density, specific heat, and thermal conductivity were measured to analyze the temperature distribution during the curing and cooling processes. The times to reach 90% curing extent at varying temperatures were measured and used to determine the final cure extent distribution inside the rubber.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.47-60
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• 2016

The objective of this study was to evaluate the capability of different strength-maturity models to account for the effect of the hydration heat on the in-place strength development of high-strength concrete specifically developed for nuclear facility structures under various ambient curing temperatures. To simulate the primary containment-vessel of a nuclear reactor, three 1200-mm-thick wall specimens were prepared and stored under isothermal conditions of approximately $5^{\circ}C$ (cold temperature), $20^{\circ}C$ (reference temperature), and $35^{\circ}C$ (hot temperature). The in situ compressive strengths of the mock-up walls were measured using cores drilled from the walls and compared with strengths estimated from various strength-maturity models considering the internal temperature rise owing to the hydration heat. The test results showed the initial apparent activation energies at the hardening phase were approximately 2 times higher than the apparent activation energies until the final setting. The differences between core strengths and field-cured cylinder strengths became more notable at early ages and with the decrease in the ambient curing temperature. The strength-maturity model proposed by Yang provides better reliability in estimating in situ strength of concrete than that of Kim et al. and Pinto and Schindler.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.7 no.3 s.25
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• pp.23-30
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• 2005

Predicting distribution and variation of humidity inside concrete is essential to improve curing quality of concrete at field. The concrete humidity is predicted by numerical analysis using surface humidity as boundary condition. However, ambient humidity has been used instead of the surface humidity because the surface humidity could not be ccurately measured. Because it is hard to accurately measure the surface humidity, owever, the ambient humidity has been used instead of the surface humidity in the numerical analysis. In this paper, a methodology to accurately measure the surface humidity is suggested, and the ambient humidity and the humidity at the surface and inside the concrete measured by a series of laboratory tests are presented. The cause of low concrete humidity immediately after placement was investigated by a separately performed test. A surface humidity prediction model was developed using the measured humidity, and consequently validated through an additional test.