Safeguarding concrete in adverse curing conditions

Concrete is a material that comprises of cement (such as pozzolan in Portland cement), aggregate and water. To obtain a workable and high strength concrete, the proportions of the mentioned ingredients should be properly and rationally chosen (Sahu and Jena, 2015). Concrete of high performance is generally the one that has a compressive strength of 40 MPa or even greater.
Concrete exists for many years and is considered as one of the most durable manmade materials. It is a material that still attracts the attention of the researchers which also results from the need of the industry to obtain a concrete material of high durability, high performance and higher sustainability. One of the concrete industry's focuses, which is related also to this PhD research proposal, is the improvement of concrete durability (Jenkins, 2015). More specifically, the researcher aims to focus on the hypothesis that it is possible to safeguard the engineering properties and durability of structural concrete by adding admixtures and performing surface treatments.

Problem Statement
The durability of concrete is largely dependent on the early stage curing performance. Improper curing results non-uniform hydration, and which eventually leads to micro- cracks. These micro-cracks widen with time and as a result water and other harmful substances enters in the concrete. The non-uniform hydration happens due to large temperature change across the depth of concrete. It is possible to maintain the change of temperature by adding admixtures and other protection material.