Environmental Chamber for Laboratory Studies of Cement-Based Building Materials

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Precast concrete building systems are becoming more prevalent in Canadian construction owing to their ability to accelerate construction schedules, increase flexibility in shapes in sizes, and the economic benefit of mass producing standard structural shapes. Accelerated curing, or steam curing, is an essential part of the precast process which consists of four stages, pre-steaming, ramping, holding at maximum temperature, and cooling. The curing environment typically has a high relative humidity (>95%) and a maximum temperature of 70°C or 60°C for the 'dry' and 'damp' moist category, respectively as specified in CSA23.4-05. It is critical that experimental studies do not exceed the maximum concrete temperature limit because it has been proven to adversely affect the microstructure and durability performance.This research proposal requests funds for an environmental chamber which is necessary to conduct research focused on improving current concrete materials design and precast product manufacturing processes in context with the environment, economics and energy.