Patent

The monitorization of the concrete curing process is of high importance, notably in briges having a large span, allowing to control in a more rigorous way the moment of demoulding, preventing accidents in special construction works developed in adverse conditions due to the climate or the concreting conditions themselves. The proposed method allows monitoring the stage of the curing process of a concrete structure, using plastic optical fibers. In comparison with the available commercial solutions, the proposed method allows to determine directly the presence of water in the mixture, in contrast to other methods based on the measurement of the temperature increase during the exothermic process of the concrete hardening. Plastic optical fibers embedded in the structural element provide a low cost monitoring process. The proposed method also provides sufficient resolution to analyze the curing process until its stabilization.