Daewoo Engineering & Construction announced on the 15th that it has developed the 'temperature history tracking curing system technology' that applies Internet of Things (IoT) technology for the first time in the country. This technology is the latest curing method using public test specimens that can most accurately evaluate the quality of concrete in structures.
The temperature history tracking curing system selected by Daewoo Engineering & Construction is centered on installing wireless sensors to measure the temperature of structural concrete and operating heating and cooling devices in the storage container for field curing test specimens. This allows the curing temperature of field concrete test specimens to be made identical to the temperature of the structural concrete.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport revised the 'standard specifications for concrete' on Dec. 30 last year to strengthen quality management of concrete in construction sites. Previously, quality inspections of structural concrete were only conducted when quality was in doubt; however, regulations were changed to mandate quality inspections following the 2022 Gwangju apartment collapse and the 2023 Geomdan apartment collapse. According to the revised standard specifications, quality inspections of structural concrete must utilize field curing test specimens.
Generally, in construction sites, test specimens are created to check the strength of freshly poured concrete. The curing methods for test specimens are generally divided into standard curing and field curing, with field curing further subdivided into field underwater curing, field sealed curing, and temperature history tracking curing.
Temperature history tracking curing has the advantage of increasing the reliability of quality inspections compared to field underwater curing and field sealed curing methods. Wireless temperature sensors installed in the structural concrete measure the temperature in real time and transmit the data through a wireless communication network, allowing the curing chamber with heating and cooling devices to automatically maintain the same temperature, creating an environment as similar as possible to that of the field structure for curing the test specimens.
However, in actual field situations, due to factors such as decreased accuracy of sensors depending on the communication environment or the inconvenience of moving heavy curing chambers when connecting through wires, it has not been actively utilized in the field.
The newly developed IoT-based temperature history tracking curing system by Daewoo Engineering & Construction has significantly improved the shortcomings of existing systems by enhancing data transmission and reception accuracy using wireless communication (LTE). The chamber has also been miniaturized to improve field usability. Additionally, real-time verification of the estimated strength of structures using cumulative temperature-strength data enables accurate quality management.