STRENGTH PROPERTIES OF M20 AND M50 GRADES OF PEG 400 MODIFIED SELF-CURING CONCRETE AND ANALYSIS USING ANSYS SOFTWARE

Self-Curing also known as internal curing refers to a method of water retention inside the concrete body by mixing Self-Curing additive in it. This leads to an effective hydration mechanism, thereby reducing the tendency of self-desiccation. This work was aimed at experimentally determining the workability of M20 grade and M50 grade concretes in their plastic form and density, compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural strength in their hardened form at 3, 7 and 28 days. Strength parameters at 28 days were also arrived at for both the grades of conventional concrete and the concretes containing optimum dosage of Polyethylene Glycol 400 (PEG 400) by virtual analysis using ANSYS 14.5 version. PEG 400 in its liquid form acts as an effective Self Curing chemical by reducing the water evaporation from the concrete and leads to better water retention in comparison with poorly and insufficiently cured conventional concrete. It also plays a role of Shrinkage Reducing Admixture (SRA). In this study, three dosages of 1%, 1.5% and 2% of PEG 400 by dry cement weight were tried. The Self-Curing concrete elements were placed in an open environment inside the laboratory for air-curing; whereas the conventional concrete elements were placed under the water. Among Self-Curing specimens, the ones with 1.5% dosage of SelfCuring chemical exhibited the maximum values of strength parameters. The conventional concretes and Self-Curing concretes attained the desired target compressive strength when cured for 28 days. The increasing dosages of PEG 400 led to an increased concrete workability measured through the slump test and slump retention test after 30 minutes. The values of strength parameters obtained through ANSYS analysis showed close proximity with that obtained from the experimental results.