Curing is one of those activities that every civil engineer and construction worker has heard of, but in reality does not worry about much. In practice, curing is often low on the list of priorities on the construction site, particularly when budgets and timelines are under pressure. Yet the increasing demands being placed on concrete mixtures also

The American Concrete Institute in 2010 defined internal curing as supplying water throughout a freshly placed cementitious mixture using reservoirs, via pre-wetted lightweight aggregates, that readily release water as needed for hydration or to replace moisture lost through evaporation or self-desiccation (American Concrete Institute, 2010). While internal curing has been inadvertently included in many lightweight concretes produced within the past 100 years, it is only within the first decade of the 21st century that this technology has been intentionally incorporated into concrete mixtures at the proportioning stage, using a variety of materials including pre-wetted lightweight aggregates, pre-wetted crushed returned concrete fines, superabsorbent polymers, and pre-wetted wood fibers. This report provides a state-of-the-art review of the subject of internal curing, first addressing its history and theory, andthen proceeding to summarize published guidance on implementing internal curing in practice and published research on its influence on the performance properties of concrete. The ongoing exploration of extensions of the internal curing concept that employ the internal reservoirs to contain materials other than water are reviewed. Finally, the critical issue of sustainability is addressed. An extensive internal curing bibliography that is also available over the Internet is included in an appendix. The report is mainly focused on the utilization of prewettedlightweight aggregates as the internal reservoirs due to thisbeing the current established practice within the U.S.

"The HCM includes three printed volumes (Volumes 1-3) that can be purchased from the Transportation Research Board in print and electronic formats. Volume 4 is a free online resource that supports the rest of the manual. It includes: Supplemental chapters 25-38, providing additional details of the methodologies described in the Volume 1-3 chapters, example problems, and other resources; A technical reference library providing access to a significant portion of the research supporting HCM methods; Two applications guides demonstrating how the HCM can be applied to planning-level analysis and a variety of traffic operations applications; Interpretations, updates, and errata for the HCM (as they are developed);A discussion forum allowing HCM users to ask questions and collaborate on HCM-related matters; and Notifications of chapter updates, active discussions, and more via an optional e-mail notification feature."--Publisher.

&Quot;This book is an essential purchase for all those involved in bridge construction and innovative building techniques, such as bridge owners, design offices, bridge consultants, and construction equipment suppliers."--BOOK JACKET.

This is the state-of-the-art report prepared by the RILEM TC “Application of Super Absorbent Polymers (SAP) in concrete construction”. It gives a comprehensive overview of the properties of SAP, specific water absorption and desorption behaviour of SAP in fresh and hardening concrete, effects of the SAP addition on rheological properties of fresh concrete, changes of cement paste microstructure and mechanical properties of concrete. Furthermore, the key advantages of using SAP are described in detail: the ability of this material to act as an internal curing agent to mitigate autogenous shrinkage of high-performance concrete, the possibility to use SAP as an alternative to air-entrainment agents in order to increase the frost resistance of concrete, and finally, the benefit of steering the rheology of fresh cement-based materials. The final chapter describes the first existing and numerous prospective applications for this new concrete additive.