Safeguarding concrete in adverse curing conditions

混凝土是一种由水泥（如波特兰水泥中的火山灰）、骨料和水组成的材料。为了获得可行的高强度混凝土，应适当合理地选择上述成分的比例（Sahu和Jena， 2015）。高性能混凝土一般是抗压强度达到40mpa甚至更高的混凝土。混凝土已经存在了很多年，被认为是最耐用的人造材料之一。它是一种仍然吸引着研究人员关注的材料，这也是工业需要获得高耐久性，高性能和更高可持续性的混凝土材料的结果。混凝土行业的重点之一，这也与这个博士研究计划有关，是混凝土耐久性的提高（Jenkins, 2015）。更具体地说，研究人员的目标是关注这样一个假设，即通过添加外加剂和进行表面处理，可以保护结构混凝土的工程性能和耐久性。问题陈述混凝土的耐久性很大程度上取决于早期养护性能。养护不当会导致水化不均匀，最终导致微裂纹。这些微裂缝随着时间的推移而变宽，导致水和其他有害物质进入混凝土。由于混凝土纵深温度变化较大，导致水化不均匀。通过添加外加剂和其他保护材料，可以保持温度的变化。

Concrete is a material that comprises of cement (such as pozzolan in Portland cement), aggregate and water. To obtain a workable and high strength concrete, the proportions of the mentioned ingredients should be properly and rationally chosen (Sahu and Jena, 2015). Concrete of high performance is generally the one that has a compressive strength of 40 MPa or even greater.Concrete exists for many years and is considered as one of the most durable manmade materials. It is a material that still attracts the attention of the researchers which also results from the need of the industry to obtain a concrete material of high durability, high performance and higher sustainability. One of the concrete industry's focuses, which is related also to this PhD research proposal, is the improvement of concrete durability (Jenkins, 2015). More specifically, the researcher aims to focus on the hypothesis that it is possible to safeguard the engineering properties and durability of structural concrete by adding admixtures and performing surface treatments.Problem StatementThe durability of concrete is largely dependent on the early stage curing performance. Improper curing results non-uniform hydration, and which eventually leads to micro- cracks. These micro-cracks widen with time and as a result water and other harmful substances enters in the concrete. The non-uniform hydration happens due to large temperature change across the depth of concrete. It is possible to maintain the change of temperature by adding admixtures and other protection material.