How far can the water travel for internal curing?

To calculate how far the water present in the LWA can travel, the water flow rate is equated to the value needed to maintain saturation in the surrounding hydrating cement paste. It is assumed that the cement paste and water reservoirs are composed of a set of equi-size cylindrical pores. In the case of the water reservoirs, the pore size is fixed, while in the case of the cement paste, the pore size will decrease with continuing hydration. Such an approach was first applied by Weber and Reinhardt as documented in:

Weber, S., and Reinhardt, H.W., "Manipulating the Water Content and Microstructure of High Performance Concrete Using Autogenous Curing," Modern Concrete Materials: Binders, Additions, and Admixtures, Eds. R.K. Dhir and T.D. Dyer, Thomas Telford (1999) 567-577.

See also:

Materials Science-Based Models in Support of Internal Water Curing D.P. Bentz, E.A.B. Koenders, S. Monnig, H.-W. Reinhardt, K. van Breugel, and G. Ye, published as part of a RILEM state-of-the-art report (2007).

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1) Calculation of pressure drop between LWA and cement paste pores

Surface tension of pore solution Pa-m

Pore radius in LWA µ m

"Largest" pore radius in hydrating cement paste µ m

Calculated pressure drop Pa

2) Calculation of fill factor to maintain saturation

Cement paste chemical shrinkage kg water/kg cement More information

Cement factor for concrete mixture kg/m3

Concrete porosity (fraction)

Instantaneous hydration rate s-1

Density of pore solution kg/m3

Calculated fill fraction s -1

3) Estimation of flow distance

Cement paste permeability m 2

Pore solution viscosity Pa-s

Estimated flow distance mm