Development and Application of Water-Saving and Moisture-Retaining Membrane Made from Controllable High Polymer Materials for Concrete Curing

The conventional curing methods for cement concrete pavement have been frequently criticized for their high levels of water consumption, high labor intensity, high cost, nonuniform curing quality, and other problems. In an attempt to solve these problems, the research of this paper, on the basis of some concrete pavement construction projects and some concrete pillar construction projects in China, explored the development of a new type of curing membrane from controllable high polymer materials for concrete curing that helps to save water and retain moisture. This curing membrane was developed with a new type of controllable high polymer material as the interlayer material, with a specialized plastic membrane as the carrier, and based on the concrete hydration principle as the theoretical background. In the research of this paper, a series of tests were done to measure the temperature and relative humidity of concrete cured using different methods. Furthermore, the strength, carbonization depth, and cracking of concrete slabs under different types of curing were also tested. The results indicated that (1) the use of the new-type water-saving and moisture-retaining membranes to cure concrete for 28 days could retain the surface humidity of concrete up to more than 90%; (2) microcracks of concrete slabs during summer construction were reduced by the combined use of a curing agent and the new-type water-saving and moisture-retaining membrane; and (3) compared with no curing at all, carbonization depth of concrete cured by the new-type curing membrane for 90 days was reduced by 60% while the concrete strength increased by 8.6 MPa, up to 51.6 MPa.