Avaliação da influência do processo de cura na resistência à compressão do concreto

The curing process is one of the fundamental stages in the execution of the concrete, because contributes to the increase of resistance and guarantee the necessary characteristics for a good performance. The properties of concrete are consequences of the quality control of the production, where the materials used are of great importance for the concrete to reach the requirements required in projects. Therefore, the present work aims to analyse and compare the compressive strength of concrete, by means of axial compression testing of cylindrical specimens, varying the types of curing. The types of cures used were sprinkling, submersion, buried and exposed to the environment (without curing). In possession of the results, the relevance of the adequate curing process was observed, which can provide a gain of up to 52% in the final resistance to axial compression of the concrete. The spray-curing process, which is widely used in practice, proved to be effective, however, production control is of high importance, given the wide variety of factors that influence the final strength of the concrete element. The curing with buried specimens showed results like those sprinkled for the curing time of 28 days, having a similar effect to prevent the evaporation of the kneading water. Analysing the cure exposed to the environment, it showed high results due to climatic conditions that occurred in the initial cure period. The submersion cure, on the other hand, presented satisfactory and expected results, as it is always in contact with water throughout the process.