An Experimental Study on Relationship among Water Sorptivity, Pore Characteristics, and Salt Concentration in Concrete

Abstract

In this work, the sorptivity properties of concrete with varioustypes of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) curedat three different curing regimes was investigated using thegravimetric method. In parallel, the effects of four differentconcentrations of sodium chloride solution on the sorptivity ofconcrete were studied using both gravimetric and electronicmethods. The results show that the incorporation of SCMsreduces the sorptivity of concrete when sufficient moisture curingis provided; otherwise, it exacerbates sorptivity. Nevertheless,there exists a strong correlation between the sorptivitycoefficient and threshold pore size of concrete measured bymercury intrusion porosimetry. The gravimetric and electronicmethods show different trends regarding the effects of liquidproperties on sorptivity, probably because the gravimetricmethod cannot differentiate the weight of water from salts duringthe measurements.