Monitoring the Liquid to Solid Transition in Concrete with Conventional Tests

Abstract

This paper describes how a simple but challenging experiment was carried out to measure concrete temperature, air content, unit weight, slump, setting (penetration resistance), heat release, maturity, and compression strength. The experiment spanned a 28-day period beginning with discharge from the chute of a concrete truck. It was thus demonstrated that concrete’s transition from liquid to solid is represented continuously by maturity and by heat release, but it is more commonly recorded in terms of three phases in concrete development: slump loss, setting, and strength gain. The paper describes how these phases overlap each other and are related to concrete temperature, heat release, and maturity.