Hello friends, today I am going to talk about an important step in the construction process, such as curing concrete; and my experience in my first construction site; I will show you pictures of the result when the item does not cure properly.

Cracks in concrete:

A significant decrease in the life of an element that should last 50 years lasts only 5 years and a low resistance of concrete, which would mean a risk and also a waste of materials.

These are problems that would occur if proper care is not taken in the curing process, a very important stage in the construction process with this hydraulic binder, but unfortunately it is not given the importance it should and many times this process is neglected so important.

Curing consists of keeping the concrete surface hydrated in the setting process, to prevent the element from losing internal water, due to evaporation, produced by air or heat from the sun or other factors, by keeping the concrete hydrated. It is ensured that the cement particles react completely, since for these particles to react, the presence of water is required and if there is insufficient water they will not react 100%, so the maximum potential of the concrete would not be used.

When the mixture is in the process of setting, it becomes hard, it gains strength, this happens due to the drying and recrystallization of the metal hydroxides from the chemical reaction of the mixing water with the metal oxides present in the clinker that make up the cement, for this reason it is important to take care that the concrete does not lose water, it is important to take care that it remains hydrated and also another benefit of curing is the regulation of the temperature of the element, a very important factor that influences the gain in the strength of the concrete in final stages and in initial stages.

When the concrete is between 10 and 30 degrees it develops adequately, but when the concrete is below 10 degrees Celsius temperature the concrete acquires the initial strengths very slowly and when it is above 30 degrees Celsius in concrete it acquires strengths. initial resistances very quickly but the final resistances decrease considerably.

Another benefit of the correct curing of concrete is the decrease in porosity, a very important factor that influences the durability of concrete, and also if the concrete surface dries out very quickly in the initial stages of the gain in concrete strength, It occurs in surface cracks, due to plastic shrinkage, which would cause the concrete to drop as well as the curing of the concrete, so it is very important.

What if the curing was not done, an uncured concrete would only reach 55 percent of the resistance that it should reach and this is very dangerous, as seen in the image of a plate, besides that it would be wasting money , because preparing a cubic meter of concrete with sufficient quality for structural elements, approximately 10 bags of cement are needed to achieve a resistance of 210 kgf / cm², which is recommended for dangerous beams and if it is not properly cared for as it will not reach the resistance necessary, that is, it would be equivalent to preparing a concrete of much lower quality, for which much less cement would be used, therefore it would be cheaper and then it would not make sense to spend money, if you are going to let the concrete deteriorate in addition to that it would be very dangerous.

It is a very exciting and long topic, so as not to extend myself I will leave it here, but I will surely do another publication related to construction and its science, Thanks to all the readers.