The shrinkage of concrete, along with the cracking that often accompanies it, has been a subject of continual concern to the concrete construction community. 1, 2 In the past twenty years or so, numerous shrinkage-reducing admixtures (SRAs) have been developed and employed with the goal of reducing drying shrinkage and delaying or preventing cracking.2-6 SRAs generally function by significantly decreasing the surface tension of the pore solution within the concrete or mortar. In addition to influencing drying shrinkage, this reduction in surface tension can potentially be applied beneficially to reduce autogenous shrinkage and the evaporative loss of water during early age curing.6, 7 This paper will review the theory of drying shrinkage and present the results of preliminary experiments evaluating the application of SRA solutions as "curing compounds" to reduce evaporative water loss from concrete during curing.
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