Effect of the Thermal Insulation Cover Curing on Temperature Rise and Early-Age Strength of Concrete

In the present paper, the effects of thermal insulation cover curing on the rise in temperature of concrete, and further on the mechanical properties of the concrete are measured experimentally. In the experiments, polyurethane foam boards of 100 mm thickness were used for thermal insulation, and three concrete strength grades of C30, C50 and C80, were used as concrete samples. Conventional standard curing, and two heat curing methods with a constant temperature of 40 °C and 60 °C were used for comparison. The pore structure of the cement paste subject to the different curing procedures, including insulation cover curing, heat curing and standard curing, was experimentally measured using mercury intrusion porosimetry. The test results show that rate of increase in compressive strength compared with standard curing is 22–34%, 16–26%, and 23–67%, respectively, for C30, C50, C80 concrete after being subject to 1 to 3 days thermal insulation cover curing in the initial period after concrete casting. As expected, initial heat curing of concrete will result in a reduction in the long-term strength of the concrete. At 28 days, the strength reduction rate compared with standard curing due to the insulation cover curing is 3.1–5.9%, 0.6–3.0%, 0–3.2%, respectively, for C30, C50, C80 concrete. By contrast, the compressive strength reduction compared with standard curing at 28 days is 8.6–10.5%, 8.6–9.1%, 4.7–5.6%, respectively, for C30, C50, C80 concrete after being subject to a constant heat curing of 40 °C and 60 °C in the initial period after concrete casting. Measurement of the pore structure of the paste subject to different curing procedures initially after casting shows that rising curing temperature leads to coarser pores, especially an increase in capillary pore fraction. Among the four curing methods used in the present study, the effect of insulation cover curing and low temperature (40 °C) heat curing on the capillary pore content is small, while the effect of high temperature (60 °C) heat curing is significant.