Hydration, mechanical properties and durability of high-strength concrete under different curing conditions

The properties of high-strength concrete under standard curing condition (20 °C, 95% RH), high-temperature curing condition (50 °C) and temperature match curing condition were comparatively investigated. The cumulative hydration heat of composite binder containing fly ash and silica fume is lower than that of composite binder containing the same amount of slag. Addition of fly ash and silica fume clearly reduces the adiabatic temperature rise of concrete, but adding slag leads to higher adiabatic temperature rise than Portland cement concrete. High-temperature curing condition and temperature match curing condition lead to the sustainable increase in compressive strength of concrete containing mineral admixture, but they hinder the later-age strength development of Portland cement concrete. For cement–slag paste and cement–fly ash–silica fume paste, the non-evaporable water contents increase significantly and the pore structures are much finer under high-temperature curing condition and temperature match curing condition, which negatively affect the pore structure of Portland cement paste. The differences in properties of concrete among three curing conditions become smaller with time. The properties obtained under standard curing condition can approximately reflect the long-term properties of high-strength concrete in the real structure. The concrete prepared with cement–fly ash–silica fume composite binder has the highest compressive strength, finest pore structure and best resistance to chloride permeability under any curing condition. This composite binder is very suitable to prepare the high-strength concrete with large volume.