PSI - Issue 70

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ScienceDirect

Procedia Structural Integrity 70 (2025) 239–246

Keywords: Internal curing; Corn Starch; Tapioca Starch; Starch gel; Strength; Shrinkage 1. Introduction Globally concrete stands as the primary construction material because yearly production reaches 26 billion tonnes while serving as critical infrastructure across housing and industrial applications (Kamrul et al.,2024). The combination of versatility with cost-effective nature and strength adaptability makes concrete essential for modern engineering needs. Concrete structures experience performance challenges from three main defects including shrinkage cracking together with increased permeability and reduced durability in harsh environmental conditions (Lura et al.,2003). Abstract The investigation explores the potential of starch-based gels as bio-curing agents to improve concrete curing processes and properties. The concrete mixes contained two starch gel variants called corn starch (CS) and tapioca starch (TS) at different cement weight dosages ranging from 0.5% to 2%. A 1:10 ratio of starch gel existed with water when mixed. The results indicate that workability levels decrease when starch dosage reaches higher values. The addition of starch results in improved compressive and tensile strengths up to an optimum point followed by a slight decrease at 1.0% for corn starch and 1.25% for tapioca starch. The pattern for flexural strength mirrors the other test results. The use of starch gel leads to substantial drying shrinkage reduction which reaches its minimum point at the optimal dosage amounts. The utilization of tapioca starch gel produces slightly superior results in terms of shrinkage reduction compared to corn starch. The research findings confirm that internal curing with starch gels produces effective results by improving concrete durability while maintaining its strength properties. © 2025 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under the responsibility of International Conference on Structural Integrity Organizers Structural Integrity and Interactions of Materials in Civil Engineering Structures (SIIMCES-2025) Experimental Investigation of Natural Starch Internal Curing Agents in High-Performance Concrete Surya Mouli.R a, *, R. Jagadeesan a , Ganeshprabhu Parvathikumar b , Brintha Sahadevan b a Department of Civil Engineering, K.S. Rangasamy College of Technology, Tiruchengode -637 215, India. b Department of Civil Engineering, Kamaraj College of Engineering and Technology, K.Vellakullam, Virudhunagar-625701, India.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-86677 47765 E-mail address: suryamouli1792@gmail.com

2452-3216 © 2025 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under the responsibility of International Conference on Structural Integrity Organizers 10.1016/j.prostr.2025.07.049