Effect of aggregates and curing conditions on the compressive strength of concrete with age

Abstract

The present research describes the effect of aggregate and curing condition on the compressive strength of concrete with age. Ordinary Portland cement, coarse sand and brick chips/pebble gravels were used as binder, fine aggregate and coarse aggregate respectively. The ratio of cement, sand and coarse aggregate was 1:2:4 by weight. Five different curing conditions namely, water curing (WC), self curing (SC), air dry curing (ADC), one-day delay curing (1-DC) and three-days delay curing (3-DC) were employed. Two types of concrete namely; concrete C1 (brick chips as coarse aggregate) and C2 (pebbles gravel as coarse aggregate) were prepared in this study. The physical and mechanical properties of aggregates and concrete were determined respectively. The results show that, the compressive strength of concrete is affected by the properties of the aggregate and also curing condition employed. It was found that, the concrete C1 and the normal water curing appeared to be better than concrete C2 and other types of curing condition.