QUEST RESEARCH JOURNAL, VOL. 18, NO. 2, PP.

29–32, JUL–DEC, 2020 29

Effect of Various Curing Methods and Curing Ages on Compressive Strength

of Plain Concrete
Muhammad Saleem Raza1,* , Haresh Kumar2 , Kunal Rai3 , Danish Kumar4 , Naraindas Bheel5
1
Department of Civil Engineering, MUET, Jamshoro, Pakistan.
2
Institute of Environmental Engineering and Management (IEEM), MUET, Jamshoro, Pakistan.
3
Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering (DICAM), University of Bologna, Italy.
4
Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives of Federal Government of Pakistan.
5
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia.
*
Corresponding author: saleemraza43@yahoo.com

Abstract

Concrete is the most important and most consumed construction material in global construction industry. The
properties of concrete are greatly influenced by properties of its constituents and curing methods utilized for
preparation of specimens. This study is focused on investigating the influence of three common curing methods,
i.e., ponding, sprinkling and wet cover curing on compressive strength behavior of concrete. In total, 45 cubes were
casted and tested after curing for 3, 7, 14, 28 and 56 days. The obtained results suggest that ponding method of
concrete curing is most effective among all the three methods of concrete curing considered in this study. After
ponding, the performance of concrete cured with wet cover curing method was quite acceptable. Moreover, the
study also suggested that sprinkling method of curing gives lowest compressive strength due to greater moisture
movement which abates the hydration of binder in concrete. This study will be helpful for construction practitioners
in deciding the best-suited curing method under given conditions and available methods of preparation of concrete.

Keywords—Concrete, Curing, Curing Methods, Compressive Strength

✦

1 Introduction

C oncrete is being widely adopted as construction

material since ages because of its availability,
versatility and durability [1]. It is a man-made
curing of concrete ensures 90% attainment of concrete
strength [6]. For proper curing, adequate moisture
and temperature should be provided to concrete [5].
construction material composed of cement, fine Hence, the curing of concrete is of extreme importance
aggregates, coarse aggregates and water [2][3]. The as it ensures the attainment of design strength and
cement in concrete acts as a binder that sets and decreases the occurrence of surface cracks [4].
hardens other components of concrete together while Curing not only reduces the shrinkage and
the aggregates are employed for adequate bonding [2]. permeability loss, but it also protects it from
This process of setting and hardening of cement is a strength and durability losses, essentially on early
chemical process called as hydration which is caused days of strength gain [5]. The prime purpose of
and accelerated by water used for curing of concrete concrete curing in early age is to provide concrete
[4]. As the hydration of cement is an exothermic enough amount of water for strength gains [6]. Based
chemical reaction that emits considerable amount of on conditions and availability, various methods for
heat, the curing temperature below 10◦ C i.e. 50◦ F is concrete curing are employed such as curing with
not acceptable [5]. The improper curing of concrete gunny bags, curing with potable water, air curing,
can result in loss of half of its strength and proper polythene curing, steam curing, ponding, sprinkling,
wet covering etc. [5][7][8].
ISSN: 2523-0379 (Online), ISSN: 1605-8607 (Print) The curing of concrete with potable water involves
DOI: 10.52584/QRJ.1802.04
This is an open access article published by Quaid-e-Awam
sprinkling and/or ponding methods. In sprinkling
University of Engineering Science & Technology, Nawabshah, method, the concrete is sprayed by water and
Pakistan under CC BY 4.0 International License. in ponding method, concrete specimens are kept
QUEST RESEARCH JOURNAL, VOL. 18, NO. 2, PP. 29–32, JUL–DEC, 2020 30
Oxide Percentage Oxide Percentage
immersed in water for certain curing regimes [5]. The SiO2 20.67% F e2 O3 3.2%
gunny bags curing and/or polythene sheet curing CaO 59.63% SO3 2.49%
fall under the category of curing with wet covering. M gO 3.66% K2 O 0.67%
The concrete samples are kept under gunny bags, N a2 O 0.12% LOI 8.44%
polythene sheets and/or wet burlaps for providing Al2 O3 6.03% - -
moisture to concrete matrix for hydration process
TABLE 1: Chemical composition of ordinary portland
[9]. Similarly, in air curing, the concrete units are
cement
placed in stacks at room temperature to allow free
flow of ambient air for curing [8]. The claim has
Curing Number of Cubes
been made [8] that the concrete cured by air exhibits Methods 3 7 14 28 56
10%-20% lesser strength than the concrete cured Days Days Days Days Days
by water. The behavior of concrete incorporating Ponding 3 3 3 3 3
recycled aggregates at replacement levels of 0%, 25%, Sprinkling 3 3 3 3 3
Wet Cover
50% and 100% under different curing methods i.e. air Curing
3 3 3 3 3
curing, water curing and painted curing was studied Total Cubes 3x3x5= 45
[10]. The study concluded that curing with paint
materials was beneficial for strength gain except in TABLE 2: Details of concrete cubes prepared for com-
case of 100% replacement of aggregates. Moreover, the pressive strength test
concrete cured by water showed greater strength than
the concrete cured by air [10]. Similar results were
obtained as the authors in [11] concluded that concrete was utilized for preparation of concrete. The Ordinary
cured by ponding (immersing in the water) showed Portland cement (OPC) of Grade 43 conforming to
greater compressive, tensile and flexural strength than prescriptions set in [15] was used for conduct of this
the concrete cured by air and wet plastic film. For research. The chemical composition of OPC is detailed
hot weather conditions, the wet burlap sheet covering in Table 1. The initial and final setting time of cement
method was suggested [12]. This study also urged was 50 minutes and 214 minutes respectively. The
that a mini-mum of 3 days wet burlap curing should fine and coarse aggregates conforming to guidelines of
be ensured for rich concrete mixes and similarly, [16] were utilized. The water absorption and specific
7 days wet burlap curing for lean concrete mixes gravity of fine aggregates was 1.25% and 2.5. Similarly,
should be ensured [12]. It is very much necessary the water absorption and specific gravity of coarse
that the minimum curing period should be optimized aggregates was 2.67% and 2.71.
in relation to the required proper-ties of concrete The concrete mix ratio was maintained as 1:1.5:3 and
as the concrete mixtures prepared with pozzolanic the targeted strength was 25 MPa. For preparation of
admixtures are more sensitive than the plain concrete concrete specimens prepared for compressive strength
[13]. It is a well-established fact that curing of concrete test, the standards of [17] were strictly followed. In to-
provides strength to concrete matrix. Moreover, the tal, 45 number of cubes of size 150×150×150 mm were
curing days also influence the strength development casted for compressive strength testing as detailed in
process in concrete units. Table 2. The universal testing machine (UTM) was
This study, therefore, aims at checking the influence used for compressive strength testing of cubes at the
of various curing methods and curing days on end of the respective curing age in accordance with
compressive strength of plain cement concrete. The guidelines of [18]. For curing of concrete specimens,
study compared the influence of ponding, spraying three methods i.e. ponding, sprinkling and wet cover
and wet cover curing on compressive strength of curing were considered, and the results were compared.
un-reinforced concrete. The curing regimes were For curing of concrete specimens via ponding method,
selected as 3, 7, 14, 28 and 56 days. the concrete cubes were immersed completely in the
water for respective curing ages. Throughout this pro-
cess, the average laboratory temperature equivalent to
standard room temperature was maintained in order
2 Materials and Methods to avert the possible thermal stresses that could fur-
The materials utilized in this study are basic com- ther lead towards development of cracks. As ponding
ponents of plain cement concrete, i.e., aggregates, ensures continuous supply of moisture and uniform
cement and water. The potable water with pH value temperature, it is considered to be an ideal method for
of 7.4, complying to requirements prescribed in [14] curing. For curing via sprinkling method, the concrete
QUEST RESEARCH JOURNAL, VOL. 18, NO. 2, PP. 29–32, JUL–DEC, 2020 31
Compressive Percentage
Curing
Strength (MPa) Difference
Method
7 Days 28 Days 7 Days 28 Days
Ponding 16.83 25.93 - -
Sprinkling 15.32 25.52 -8.97% -1.58%
Wet Cover
16.62 25.83 -1.25% -0.39%
Curing

TABLE 3: Percentage difference of compressive

strength values at 7 & 28 days of curing

Fig. 2: Relation between curing methods, curing ages

and compressive strength of concrete cubes.

It was also observed that role of curing regimes was

very crucial and important for strength development
in concrete cubes. The curing of concrete by ponding
helps in balancing the heat of hydration and aids
in adequate strength development phenomenon. The
heat of hydration is basically balanced and maintained
Fig. 1: Demonstration of various curing methods in-
through low porosity behavior caused by hear of hy-
volved.
dration which results in loss of moisture. Moreover,
the strength loss in sprinkling method is because of
specimens were periodically showered with potable wa- increased moisture movement from concrete which re-
ter available in the laboratory. However, as sprinkling sults in early drying of the concrete, ultimately abating
re-quires supply of ample amount of water and careful the entire hydration process. The concrete cured by
supervision, the cost and human resource involved in ponding method was helpful in achieving the design
it can be a major point of concern. In addition, the wet strength of structural concrete i.e. 25 MPa. These
cover curing method employed the wet sheets in order results are in agreement with those obtained in [4] and
to maintain the presence of water on the outer surface [5]. The results are graphically illustrated as under in
of complete area of concrete cubes. The wet coverings Figure 2.
were provided to the cubes soon after the acquirement
of enough strength by concrete cubes in order to pre- 4 Conclusions & Future Recommendations
vent the possible surface damage, especially on edges.
Figure 1 shows these three methods of concrete curing, The present study investigated the effect of various
adopted in this study. curing methods i.e. ponding, sprinkling and wet cover
curing and curing days i.e. 3, 7, 14, 28 and 56 days on
compressive strength of concrete cubes.
3 Results & Discussion • The results depicted that sprinkling provides low-

This study involved checking the influence of three est of compressive strengths ob-served in this
common curing methods i.e. ponding, sprinkling and study
wet cover curing on compressive strength behavior of • Although, the ponding method of concrete curing

concrete cubes. The cubes were subjected to curing for provided greater strength than that provided by
3, 7, 14, 28 and 56 days. The concrete cubes were tested sprinkling method, the performance of concrete
for compressive strength and it was observed that cured with both methods was quite comparable.
the ponding method of curing provided more strength • Considering the results, this study recommends

than the wet cover curing method of curing followed by ponding method for curing of concrete.
sprinkling method. The results are detailed in Table Moreover, the effects of other methods say as air
3 in terms of percentage difference of compressive curing, solar curing, wet hessian curing and polythene
strength values obtained at testing after 7 and 28 days sheet curing, steam curing etc. on strength behavior of
of curing of concrete cubes. concrete should also be studied in detail. In addition,
QUEST RESEARCH JOURNAL, VOL. 18, NO. 2, PP. 29–32, JUL–DEC, 2020 32

other properties such as tensile and flexural strength [17] “ASTM C192 / C192M - 19 Standard Practice for Making
values, fire and abrasion resistance, cracking behavior, and Curing Concrete Test Specimens in the Laboratory.” .
[18] “BS EN 12390-3:2019 - Testing hardened concrete. Com-
permeability and durability of concrete can be checked pressive strength of test specimens.”.
for concrete subjected to different curing methods and
curing days.

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