Effects of Concrete Constituent Materials on the Penetration of Surface Water

Concrete is one of the widely used materials in hydraulic structures. The permeability of these structures is considered to be one of the most important factors. Therefore, in this paper, the effects of aggregates, cement paste, transition zones, and concrete surface strength, on the penetration of surface water into the concrete are presented. For this study, 150 mm concrete cubes containing granite, andesite, siliceous, limestone, marble, and tuff aggregates were prepared. These specimens also contained type 2 Portland cement, silica fume, fly-ash, zeolite, and limestone powder. These admixtures replaced 10% of the cement content. While the “cylindrical chamber” was used for the permeability measurement, the “Twist-off” method was used to estimate the surface strength of the concrete specimens. Regression analysis of the permeability readings of the parent rocks, cement paste, interfacial transition zone length, and concrete surface strength revealed that the penetrated water volume into the concrete specimens could be predicted, using the proposed regression equation. It was also observed that, compared with other considered parameters, the cement paste, and concrete surface strength had the highest and lowest impact on the concrete permeability, respectively.