Effect of Curing Methods on Quality of Concrete Joints: Experimental and Modeling

Abstract

Joint deterioration in concrete pavements is predominantly related to penetrability of concrete and environmental conditions. Saw-cutting as the last procedure in the construction sequence of concrete pavements may compromise the durability of joints due to insufficient curing and uncontrolled evaporation at an early age. Capillary absorption is considered fundamental to understanding the durability performance of porous building materials. Thus, the aim of this study is to develop an analytical model based on Katz-Thompson relationship to determine the absorption capacity of joints in concrete pavements according to an absorption test customized to the joint geometry of pavements. The experimental program involved absorption and mercury-intrusion porosimetry tests conducted on cores extracted from saw-cut concrete slabs with different curing scenarios. The absorption trends were modeled based on the unsaturated flow theory with three dimensional (3D) finite-element software. The results indicated that the unsaturated flow model reliably simulated fluid transport at joint locations in concrete with accurate predictions relative to experimental results.