Prediction of compressive strength of concrete with maturity relations

Abstract

This paper focuses on the effect of cement content on concrete maturity. The experiments were conducted under laboratory conditions on eight different concrete mixtures prepared from ordinary Portland cement (cement contents of 300, 350, 400, 450, 500, 550, 600 and 650 kg/m(3)) and crushed limestone aggregates. These concrete cubes were cured in water (22C) and the temperature history was determined immediately after casting until specified ages. Compressive strength was determined at ages of 1, 3, 7, 28, 56, 90 and 120 days. In this study, the validity of the traditional maturity functions for different cement contents was tested and new relations were tried to be established. Test results revealed that Nurse-Saul maturity function and equivalent age maturity function were applicable. At the end of this investigation, it was found that the new proposed equations are quite appropriate to strength prediction for concretes containing cement contents changing from 300 to 650 kg/m(3) with slump values between 90 mm to 110 mm without any mineral or chemical admixtures.