Accelerated curing one block at a time

Submitted by sbclark on Wed, 08/02/2012 - 16:31

I have a quick question on curing one brick at a time for sample purposes, ¿can we bake a brick in a browning bag with moisture for a few hours instead of waiting a week to cure in water? What do you think?

Submitted by geoffrey on Wed, 08/02/2012 - 16:33

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Dear Steve, I suspect your idea of a browning bag (a bag that is sealed and can endure heat in an oven) will work. Curing requires moisture. Curing can be accelerated with heat. In industrial production, concrete blocks are put in a steam room for 8 hours. Here we put them in a solar high-humidity curing chamber. For one at a time curing you could put them in a sealed clear plastic bag (with some moisture) and leave them in the sun for a few days. For compression testing it is necessary to soak them in water for 48 hours. A block is weaker when it is wet. To get some results that are reliable I suggest you test 5 blocks from each mix. Make sure you cure them at the same temperature for the same length of time. Please let us know your results.