Abstract

This paper deals with the effect of the concrete internal retention using the super-absorbent polymers on the concrete compressive strength. These materials due to possessing moisture absorbing properties are widely used in various industries including agronomy and health industries. In concrete industry itself, special concretes have been broadly welcomed throughout the previous decades, enabling the industry to use such materials for internal curing of the concrete as well as improving the production conditions. This paper primarily identifies the effect of the super-absorbent materials on the produced concretes’ specifications, and compares them with the sample concretes. Then through selecting two methods for adding the materials to the concrete, they are added to the mixture in dry and saturated form, and the influential factors on the behavior and performance of the polymers are determined. The curing environment for all the samples was dry and normal conditions, so that the possibility of internal curing could be estimated. The results showed that the polymers added to the mixture in dry form exhibit by far more strength compared with the saturated samples and the samples produced without these materials. The decrease in the cement consumption is also influential on the improvement of the compressive strength of the produced samples.