Curing cement concrete by using shrinkage reducing admixture and curing compound

•Shrinkage reducing admixture and curing compound to cure concrete are used for concrete curing.•The curing method significantly reduces drying shrinkage and moisture loss of cement mixtures.•Concrete cured with the method has a high resistance to water and chloride-ion penetration. The performance of near surface concrete plays an important role in improving durability of concrete structures. The early-age drying shrinkage cracking of near surface concrete due to the moisture loss or poor curing is a main cause of durability deterioration. To minimize the drying shrinkage and moisture loss of concrete, a double-coating curing method was proposed in this study, which was coating the concrete with a shrinkage reducing admixture (SRA) and then a curing compound successively on the concrete surface after demolding. The effects of the curing method on drying shrinkage, moisture loss, strength, chloride-penetration resistance and water absorption of cement mortar and concrete were investigated. The results indicated that the curing method can obviously minimize the drying shrinkage and moisture loss of cement mortar. And the water absorption rate and chloride penetration of concrete cured under this method are significantly reduced.