Magazine of Concrete Research: Vol. 40, No.

143: June 1988

A water absorption test for concrete

S. Kelham
B L U EC I R C L EI N D U S T R I E SP L C *

SYNOPSIS
The durability of concrete near an exposed surface is
largely determined by the rate at which harmful agents
can penetrate into the concrete. This paper presents a
simple analysis of the penetration of' water into unsaturated concrete and describes a method by which the
material constant that determines the rate of penetration, the sorptivity, can be measured, together with the
effective porosity. The sorptivity is found to depend on
the permeability and porosity of the concrete and the
strength of capillary forces. The experimental results
conform well to thepredictions of the analysis and
signlJcant variations in sorptivity have been observed
for concretes containing cement replacement materials
and subject to dzfferent curing regimes.

Notation

A
cross-sectional area
of
(m'
flow
1
(Palm>
dp/dx
gradient
pressure
K
intrinsic
permeability
sample
of
material
(m')
m> sample 1 of
length
M
mass
(kg)
of sample
pressure
air
at sample
surface
(Pa)
Pcap mean effective capillary
pressure
(Pa)
air
pressure at air/water
interface
(Pa)
6,
pressure
water
at air/water
interface
waterpressure at samplesurface(Pa)
p,
mass flowof
rate
fluid
(kg/s)
Q
radius
capillary
(m)
r
m>
(PaS tension
surface
sorptivity
S

ea

*Blue Circle Industries PLC, BCC Technical Services Division,

305 London
Road,
Greenhithe, Kent DA9 SJQ, UK.

106

V
X
Z

Ap
rl
CJ

contact
time from
of water with
sample
volume
flow
rate
depth of penetration
effective porosity

(m3w
(m)
(% v/v)

capillary pressure difference

dynamic viscosity of fluid
density of fluid
angle of contact

(Pa>
(Pa S>
(kg/m3>
(rad)

(S)

Introduction
The effect ofthe qualityof concrete nearan exposed
surface on the durability of concrete structures is an
area of current interest"). Those properties controlling
the transport of aggressive materials into the bulk
of theconcrete orto the reinforcement,such
as
the permeability andsorptivity,are
of particular
imp~rtance'~,~'.
The rate at which unsaturated concreteabsorbs water in contact with its surface is
relevant to variousaspectsofdurability.
A large
number of test methods havebeenpublished
(e.g.
References 4-8) but none caneasily provide values for
the two basic parameters associated with absorption:
the mass of water which is required to saturate the
concrete-the effective porosity,and
the rate
penetration-the
of

sorptivity.

The ISATI4),Figg (water)@)and CAT@) methods are

based ontherateof
water absorption, whichis a
combination of the rate of penetration and the effective porosity. The two parameters cannot
be separated
because the volumeof
concretesaturatedduring
the test is not known. Ho et al.(7) measured the
penetration depth at various times directly by splitrequiring
ting
many
to
give reliable data.Methods for measuring the
gas

A water absorption test for concrete

permeability in unsaturated
concrete
and
water
permeability in saturated concrete arewell established
(e.g. Reference 9).
This paper presentsa simple analysis of absorption
and describes a method which enables the porosity
and sorptivity to be measured.

Theoretical model
The flow of a fluid throughaporous
usually follows Darcys law:

medium

Q = KAa(dp/dx)/V . . . . . . . . . . . (1)
where Q
K
A

mass flow rate of thefluid

= intrinsicpermeability of the medium
= cross-sectional
area of
flow
6,rl
= density and viscosity of the fluid
dp/dx = pressure gradient
This expressionis valid for laminar flow and where
the free path of the fluid molecules is small compared
with the pore size in the medium. Consider a cylinder
of concrete, cross-sectional areaA , length l, sealed on
its curved surface, in contact with water at one end
and open to the air at the other (Figure 1). At a time
t after coming into contact
with the concrete the water
will havepenetrated to somedepth x(t). To find
the rateat which x increases itis necessary to know the
pressure gradients within the sample.
Let P, be the
pressure -of the water in contact with the concrete
surface and P, that of the air at the other surface. At
the air/water interface within the sample the pressure
in the air (P,,) and water (P,,) will be different because
of capillary forces.
In a capillary of radius r the pressure difference
across the interface is given by:
P
where

2r
A = n?

2s cos 9/r . . . . . . . . . . . . . (2)

v,

Q , / ~ ,= [KA/V],I[(Pw- Plw)/xI.. . (3)

This mustbe equal to the volume rate of flow of the

air at the interface, which is given by

KA P,, - P, P,, -l
P,
. . . . . (4)
y
(=)(F).

where the term (P,, Pa)/2pI, is associated with

the compressibility of the air. Equating these flows
and using
- P
,, = Pcap(constant)and P, = P ,
(ignoring hydrostatic forces) leads to an expression
relating P,, and x . Becauseof the large difference
between the viscosities of air and waterP,, is found to
be significantly different from P, only for x less than
1/10. For such small values of x the assumption that
equilibrium flow conditions exist is probably invalid.
The high values of P,, predicted by the expression for
small values of x will not be observed because of the
compressibility of the air. We will therefore make the
approximation that P,, = P,. Equation (3) for the rate
of flow of water becomes

ea

surface tension

I3

= angle of contact

V,

To estimatethemagnitude
of this effect foran
air/water interface in concrete we take the radiusof a
largecapillarypore,
r, to be about 1
giving
P
(S

Figure 1: Cross-section of concrete cylinder considered in analysis.

MO x 1 0 3 ~ a

70 x 10-3N/m, cos 0

1)

This is equivalent to a headof about 14mof water.

Thus in many practical situations the capillary forces
will be the dominant driving forces in the absorption
of water by concrete. Hydrostatic pressuredifferences
will therefore be ignored in the analysis.
With reference to Figure 1 the pressures in the air
and water at the interface will be taken to differ by a
constantamount Pcaprthecapillarypressure.
It is
assumed that the concreteis sufficiently homogeneous
for PClpto be independent of x .
Water can be taken as an incompressible fluid and
its volume rate of flow, V,, is thus given by

K A P C a p / x.~.,. . . . . . . . . . ( 5 )

The volume of water required to saturate an element

of thickness dx is given by
dV

dxAz.. ............. (6)

where z is the effective porosity of the concrete,i.e. the

volume of water that unit volume of the concretewill
absorb in the given conditions.Thustherate
of
increase of x is given by
dxldt

V,/Az

KPcap/xztl,....... (7)

This may be integrated to give

x(t) = (2KPc,pt/zq,)~2
.......... (8)
The depthof penetration of water into unsaturated
concrete is thus proportional to the square root
of
time and the constant is known as the sorptivity, S.
S = ( 2 K P c , , / ~ ~ , ) 1. . .2. . . . . . . . (9)
The mass of the concrete cylinderat any time M ( t )
107

Magazine of Concrete Research: Vol. 40, No. 143: June 1988

is equal to the initial mass M(0) plus the mass of
absorbed water. Thus

+ Azo,x(t)
M(0) + AzowSt2... . . . . (10)

M ( t ) = M(0)
=

The sorptivity can thusbe derived from the slope of

a plot of mass vs square rootof time if the porosity is
known. If the absorption is allowed to continue until
the whole cylinder is saturated the porosity can be
obtainedfromthe
difference between thedryand
saturated weights.
z = (M(sat) - M(O))/Ala,. . . . . . . (1 1)

Experimental method
Figure 2 is a schematic drawing of an apparatus
designed to monitor theweight of a concrete cylinder
as it absorbs water under conditions corresponding
those considered in the preceding analysis. The sample
is in the form of a cylinder 150 mm diameter and
50 mm thick. The curved surface is sealed by painting
with bitumen and then covering with waterproof
adhesive tape. The top
surface is covered by a perspex
disc. The disc is sealed with grease to the edge of the
top surface of the sampleand tothe tape andencloses
an air gap of about 2 mm over the concrete surface. A
metal capillary connects this air gap to atmosphere.
The sample and cover are suspended in a sling from a
5 kg capacity load beam, the output of which can be
recorded with a microcomputer-based data logger. At
the startof the test,water is poured into the container
surrounding thesample to a depthof 50 mm above the
top surfaceof the sample. The capillary is 60 mm long
and therefore protrudesabovethe
surface of the
water. The topsurface of the sample thusremains dry
and open to the atmosphere, allowing air to escape as
water is absorbed through the lower surface of the
sample. The weight of the sample is monitored until
the rateof increase becomes very slow, which indicates
that the sample iseffectively saturated. The further
load beam

water

sample

Figure 2: Experimental arrangement.

108

slow increase in weight isassociated with movement of

water into less accessible pores and the flow of water
intothe space between the sample andthe cover
driven by the small (about 50 mm) pressure head. The
measured change in weight is actually the change in
buoyancy of the concrete as the water replaces air
within it. Since the initial weight of the sample in the
water can only be obtained by extrapolatingthe
measured results back to zero time, the weightof
absorbed water was obtained from initial and final
weighings in air. For homogeneous samples that give
very good agreement with the f 1 2 dependance, initial
and final weighings and two during the absorptionare
sufficient to calculate the sorptivity andporosity.
However, with saturation times varying between 2
hoursand several days (for well-cured concrete),
specifying times for taking measurements would need
care. Furthermore, theweight vs square root time plot
togives a useful indication of the homogeneity of the
concrete.

Experimental results
Examples of the results obtained on three mixes are
presented in Figures 3 and 4. The concretes were based
on a 1 : 2-5 : 3.5 (cement : sand :coarse aggregate) mix
with the water content gauged to give a slump of
60mm. Mix 1 contained OPC. In mix 2, 25% of the
OPC (w/w) was replaced by pulverized-fuel ash (pfa)
and in mix 3, 60% (w/w) was replaced by ground
granulatedblastfurnace slag (ggbs). One batch of
samples was de-moulded at 24 hours, cured in water
for 27 days, oven-dried at 105C for 6days and cooled
in a desiccator for l day before testing. The results,
shown in Figure 3, conform very closely to the square
root of time dependence over the whole period of
absorption and change rapidly to an almost constant
value when saturation is complete. Figure 4shows the
results obtained for the second batch of samples from
the same mixes. These were cured in air at 20C and
50% relative humidity for 27 days after de-moulding
at 24 hours. These samples were oven-dried in the
same way as the water-cured samples. The values
derived from these plots are given in Table 1. The
correlation coefficient for the least squares fit to the
linear portion of the plotis generally better than 0.999
for the water-cured samples but somewhat lower,
about 0.99, for the air-cured samples. This is due to
the inhomogeneities caused by the variable degree of
hydrationthroughthe
sample associated with air
curing.
The results forthe water-cured samples demonstrate the beneficial effects of pfa and ggbs hydration
on the transport properties of concrete, despite the
reduction in strength. The time taken for saturationto
a depth of 50mm is at least twice that for the OPC
concrete. The results for the air-cured samples show
the increased sensitivity of the concretes containing

A water absorption test for concrete

pfa or ggbs to poor curing. For the OPC concrete the

time taken to saturate the air-cured sample was half
that for the water-cured sample but for the concrete
containing ggbs the saturationtime was reduced by an
order of magnitude when the curing conditions were
changed. These results were obtained on single discs
from each mix and curing condition butsimilar results
were obtained for equivalent mixes based on 12 other
OPCS.

Application
The technique can be used, for example, to study
the effects of curingconditions,
mix design and
replacement of different levels of cement by secondary
materials, such as pulverized-fuel ash (pfa) and
ground granulated blastfurnace slag (ggbs), on effective porosityandsorptivity. An assessment can be
made of the quality of the surface layer of different

1.20

0
0

o o

l
2

TIME1/-

36

49

h/2

25

16

TIME - h

Figure 4: Experimental resuIts--air-cured concrete.

109

Magazine of Concrete Research: Vol. 40, No. 143: June 1988

T A B L E 1 : Experimental results.
Mix 1

Mix 2

Blend (w/w)

OPc

Water/cement ratio
Curing

Mix 3

0.59

Water

28 day strength (MPa)

44.0

Effective porosity (YO)

Sorptivity (mm/h)
Time to saturate 50mm (h)

12.1
14.3

75zzzaa+

40% OPC
60% ggbs

0.56

Air

Water

0.57

Air

38.6 39.2
12.8
12.9
12.3
20.0
9.9
24.6
4.1
6.2 12.225.5

Water

Air

38.2 31.4 18.9

13.1
13.6
7.6
28.4
43.3
3.1

REFERENCES
concretes designed to give thesame 28 day water1. DHIR, R. K., CHAN, Y. N. and HEWLETT, P. c. Near surface
cured strength.Although all thepresentworkhas
characteristics and durability of concrete: an initial appraisal.
been carried out oncast cylinders of 150 mm diameter,
MagazineofConcreteResearch.
Vol. 38, No. 134, March
similar results would be expected using specimens of
1986. pp. 54-6.
different shapes and sizes. Slices of cylindrical cores
2. THE CONCRETE SOCIETY. Permeability testing of site concrete
takenfromconcretestructures
should be suitable
-a review of methods and experience. Report of a Working
Party. Final draft. Permeability of concrete and its control.
subject to re-conditioning following the wet culling
London, The Concrete Society, 1985. pp. 1-68.
operations.
3. HO, D. W. S. and LEWIS, R. K. The water sorptivity of conWhile oven-drying is a quick andreproducible
cretes: the influence of constituents under continuous curing.
method of conditioning concrete, it is not suitable for
Durability of Building Materials. Vol. 4, 1987. pp. 241-52.
providing data directly applicable to concrete in the
4. BRITISH STANDARDS INSTITUTION. Methods of testing concrete
BS 1881: Part 5: Section 6: 1970. Testfor determining the
field. Some tests have been carried out on samples
initial surface absorption of concrete. Part 122: 1983. Method
cured at 20C and 50% relative humidity for 180 days.
for determination of water absorption.
The results were similar to those obtained after oven5 . RILEM RECOMMENDATIONS. CPC 11.1 Absorption of water by
drying of air-cured samples at 28 days, although there
immersion, CPC 11.2 Absorption of water by capillarity.
was even greater curvature on the
t* plots. Obviously
Materials and Structures: Research and Testing. Vol. 7, No.
40, July-August 1974. pp. 291-7. CPC 11.3 Absorption of
the variation in hydration through the sample is comwater by immersion under vacuum. Vol. 17, No. 101, Septempounded in this case by the variable degree of water
ber-October 1984. pp. 391-4. CPC 13.1 Test for the penretention.
etration of water under pressure on hardened concrete.

Conclusion
A simple analysis of the absorption of water into
unsaturated concrete hasbeen presented. The depthof
penetration is found to be proportional to the square
root of time and a method for determining the constant of proportionality, termed thesorptivity,has
been described. The experimental method includes the
measurement of the effective porosity of the sample.
The analysis shows that the square of the sorptivity is
proportionaltothe
intrinsic permeability of the
sample, the capillary forces and the inverse of the
effective porosity. The available experimental results
closely follow the formexpected from theanalysis and
the derived values for the sorptivity show significant
differences for concretes containing different cements
or subject to different curing regimes. Themethod
may therefore proveuseful in the study of the quality
of concrete surfaces subject to wet/dry cycling. The
sorptivity would seem particularly pertinent to reinforced concrete where the water might carry chloride
or other harmful ions into the concrete.

110

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Vol. 12, No. 69, May-June 1979. pp. 224-9.

FIGG, J . W. Methods of measuring air and water permeability
of concrete. Magazine of Concrete Research. Vol. 25, No. 85,
December 1973. pp. 213-219.
HO, D. W. S., HINCZAK, I., CONROY, J. I. and LEWIS, R. K.
Influence of slag cement on the water sorptivity of concrete.
Fly ash. silica fume, slag and natural pozzolans in concrete.
Detroit, American Concrete Institute, 1986. Vol. 2. pp. 146373. ACI SP91.
DHIR, R. K., HEWLETT, P. c. and CHAN, Y. N. Near-surface
characteristics of concrete: assessment and development of in
situ test methods. Magazine of Concrete Research. Vol. 39,
No. 141, December 1987. pp. 183-95.
BAMFORTH, P. B. The relationship between permeability
coefficients for concrete obtained using liquid and gas. Magazine of Concrete Research. Vol. 39, No. 138, March 1987.
pp. 3-1 I .
ODLER, I. and KOSTER, H. Investigations on the structure of
fully hydrated Portland cement and tricalcium silicate pastes.
I1 Total porosity and pore size distribution. Cement and
ConcreteResearch. Vol. 16, No. 6, November 1986. pp.
893-901.

Contributions discussing the above paper should

be in the handsof the
Editor not later than 31 December 1988.