752 | Page EVALUATION OF PROPERTIES OF SELF CURING CONCRETE BY USING POLYVINYL ALCOHOL B. Ajitha 1 , Ghantasala Nirupama 2 Department of Civil Engineering, JNTUACE Anantapuramu, Andhra Pradesh-51500 ABSTRACT The experimental study is carried out to examine the use of water-soluble and water retains by using polyvinyl alcohol PVA as self-curing agent. In the present work strength characteristics of self-curing concrete is to be better found and compared with conventional concrete of similar mix design. The concrete properties are studied at different percentages of polyvinyl alcohol additional to the concrete mix by mass of cement i.e., starting from 0.03% and doubling the same. Locally available coarse aggregate having the maximum size of 16 mm and 10 mm was used in this work. The concrete mix is prepared by mixing the ingredients are cement, fine aggregate, coarse aggregate and PVA as per mix proportion. The Ingredients are weighed according to the mix proportion M 60. The three specimens were tested for 3, 7 and 28 days with each proportion of PVA. The results which indicate that Water retention for the concrete mixes incorporate self-curing agent is elevated compared to conventional concrete mixes, as found by the mass loss with time. The result which shows that the compressive strength and workability of self curing concrete is found to be more than conventional concrete at certain percentage of Polyvinyl Alcohol [2] added to the concrete mix. Keywords: Polyvinyl Alcohol, Self Curing agent, Water retentivity I. INTRODUCTION Curing of concrete is in favour of maintaining adequate moisture content in concrete for the duration of its early stages to build up the required properties [1]. But, good curing is not always realistic and often disused in several cases. The idea of self-curing agents is to decrease the water evaporation from concrete and hence raise the water preservation capacity of the concrete which is compared to conventional concrete. The make use of self-curing admixtures is very significant from the point of sight that water resources are reaching precious every day. The advantage of self-curing admixtures is more considerable in wasteland areas anywhere water is not sufficiently obtainable. Curing is the mainly significant movement in concrete structure. Lack of curing has considerable impact on concrete strength and durability. Hydrophilic water--soluble polymers which can be used as self--curing agents in concrete as they can absorb water and keep the surrounding medium moist so that water can be used later by cement. Curing is planned first and foremost to keep the concrete wet, by prevent the loss of moisture from the concrete during the period in which it is gaining strength. The two specimens such as cylinder and beams are tested by using Split tensile and flexural tests to find their strengths.