Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Effect of curing conditions on the permeability of concrete with high

volume mineral admixtures
Baoju Liu ⇑, Guo Luo, Youjun Xie
School of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410075, PR China

h i g h l i g h t s

The influence of curing conditions on the sorptivity, electric flux and carbonation depth were investigated.

Longer curing time, higher humidity and appropriate temperature was helpful to improve the impermeability of concrete.

The relationship between water absorption and other permeability was discussed.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The influence of mineral admixtures and curing conditions on the permeability of concrete with high vol-
Received 18 January 2017 ume mineral admixtures is investigated. Fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) are
Received in revised form 6 January 2018 used to replace 50% cement, the water absorption, capillary water absorption, sorptivity coefficient, elec-
Accepted 31 January 2018
tric flux and carbonation depth of concrete with mineral admixtures are tested under different curing
conditions, such as the curing time, curing humidity and curing temperature. The test results show that
the water absorption, capillary water absorption, sorptivity coefficient, electric flux and carbonation
Keywords:
depth of concrete decrease with the longer standard curing time, higher curing humidity and appropriate
Curing conditions
Carbonation depth
curing temperature, and decrease with the increasing of GGBFS content. It is also shown that the perme-
Capillary water absorption ability of concrete with high volume mineral admixtures is very sensitive to the curing conditions.
Electric flux Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Mineral admixture
Water absorption

1. Introduction icant contribution to the permeability of concrete [5] and it has

Curing is a process during which hydraulic-cement concrete
develops hardened properties through the hydration of the cement
in the presence of water and heat. Without effective curing, signif-
icant disadvantage to long-term durability of concrete can result,
and concretes typically appear some defects, such as visible crack-
ing, microcracking, and weak surface. Good curing condition is
favorable to the development of the strength and durability of con-
crete, and can effectively improve the microstructure of concrete
and enhance the ability of concrete to resist the erosion of external
medium. The permeability of concrete is used as an indication of
durability, and substantially affected by the curing conditions [1–
4]. The penetration of water, chloride ion and gas into concrete is
closely related to the porosity and pore characteristics of concrete,
especially that of surface concrete. Mineral admixtures have signif-
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: bjliu@csu.edu.cn (B. Liu).
generally been accepted that curing is more critical for concrete
with mineral admixtures than for normal concrete [6–9].
Tasdemir [10] investigated the combined effects of mineral
admixtures and curing conditions on the sorptivity of concrete,
the sorptivity coefficient of concrete was very sensitive to the cur-
ing condition, and the effect of curing condition on the sorptivity
coefficient of concrete seems to be higher in low-strength con-
cretes. Sakai et al. [11] reported that the curing had significant
effect on the permeation rate of water in concrete. The test results
obtained by Boga et al. [12] show that it is very important that
water cure is done for 56 days and also that quite durable con-
cretes against corrosion can be produced by using fly ash at 15%
ratios replace by cement. The test results obtained by Cakie et al.
[13] show that the capillarity coefficient of slag replaced mortars
is lower than control mortars, and the decrease in the capillarity
coefficient of slag replaced mortars cured at 20 °C is higher than
slag replaced mortars cured at 40 °C. Liu et al. [14] studied the
effect of curing methods and wet curing duration on the properties

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.01.190
0950-0618/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
360 B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371

of concrete, the results shown that the proper curing methods
could effectively increase the strength, reduce the central temper-
ature due to hydration heat and the early shrinkage strain and
improve the chloride impermeability, and longer wet curing dura-
tion was essential to achieve higher strength, durability and corro-
sion resistance characteristics, especially for slag cement concrete.
The results of Sisomphon et al. [15] show the significance of 7 days
curing period on carbonation resistance of the mixtures, and the
depths of carbonation of blast-furnace slag cement with or without
fly ash are dramatically reduced by extending the curing period
from 3 days to 7 days.
When cement is replaced by 50% mineral admixtures, the cur-
ing conditions have a greater impact on the quality of concrete,
especially the surface quality. Water absorption is used to deter-
mine the amount of water absorbed under specified conditions
which indicates the degree of porosity of a material [16], and the
capillary water absorption, chloride ion penetration and carbona-
tion of concrete are more or less related to the open pores on the
concrete surface. This paper mainly studies the effect of the curing
time, curing humidity and curing temperature on the permeability
of concrete with high volume mineral admixtures, and the rela-
tionship between the water absorption and other properties of
concrete is analyzed.
is 50% of the mass of binders, but the content of fly ash and GGBFS
is changed. The mix proportions and compressive strength are
shown in Table 2.
2.3. Experimental methods
2.3.1. Water absorption
Water absorption measurements carry out according to GB/T
9966 [17]. The specimens with dimensions of 100  100100
mm are placed in the oven with the temperature of 110 ± 5 °C
for 48 hours (short for h), and the mass of the test specimen is
m0 after cooling to room temperature, and then the specimen is
immersed in water for 3d, and the mass of the specimen with
the saturated surface dry state is weighed as m1. Then the water
absorption a can be calculated as following:
m1  m0
a¼  100% ð1Þ
m0
2.3.2. Capillary water absorption
Capillary water absorption (sorptivity) measurements carry out
according to ASTM C 1585 [18]. For this test, three specimens hav-
ing dimensions of U10050 mm are employed. At first, the speci-
mens are put into oven at 110 ± 5 °C until a constant weight and

2. Experimental programs

2.1. Materials

The cement (C) used is 42.5 ordinary Portland cement, its den-
sity is 3.15 g/cm3, its specific surface area is 350 m2/kg, and 28d
compressive strength is 48.6 MPa. Fly ash (FA) is class Ⅱ fly ash,
its specific surface area is 380 m2/kg, and its density is 2.41 g/
cm3. The specific surface area of ground granulated blast furnace
slag (GGBFS) is 440 m2/kg, and its density is 2.87 g/cm3. The chem-
ical compositions of binders are shown in Table 1. The fine aggre-
gate is river sand, and its fineness modulus is 2.7. The coarse
aggregate with nominal maximum size of 15 mm is limestone
gravel, and its crushing value is 8.0%. A polycarboxylate superplas-
ticizer (SP) is used in the mixes and its water reduction rate is 30%.

2.2. Mix proportions

In all mixes, the content of cement, aggregate, water and super-

plasticizer is kept constant, and the content of mineral admixtures Fig. 1. Influence of curing time on water absorption of concrete.

Table 1
Chemical composition of binders (%).

Material Al2O3 SiO2 Fe2O3 TiO2 CaO MgO Na2O K2O LOI
Cement 4.3 21.1 2.5 0.1 65.9 1.5 0 0.5 3.2
Fly ash 26.9 55.2 5.6 1.7 2.7 1.0 0.9 2.4 2.9
GGBFS 15.0 31.0 0.3 0.9 37.4 9.4 0 0.5 4.0

Table 2
Mix proportion and compressive strength of concrete (kg/m3).

Mix code C FA GGBFS Sand Gravel Water SP Compressive strength (MPa)*

FA50 190 190 0 660 1080 209 0.50% 31.7
FA40S10 190 152 38 660 1080 209 0.50% 33.2
FA30S20 190 114 76 660 1080 209 0.50% 34.4
FA20S30 190 76 114 660 1080 209 0.50% 34.8
FA10S40 190 38 152 660 1080 209 0.50% 36.3
S50 190 0 190 660 1080 209 0.50% 36.4
*
28-day (short for d) compressive strength with 28d standard curing.
 B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371 361

Fig. 2. Influence of curing time on specific water absorption of concrete.

Fig. 3. Influence of curing time on sorptivity coefficient of concrete. Fig. 4. Influence of standard curing time on electric flux of concrete.
362 B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371
then place into a desiccator during 24 h. In order to avoid evapora-
tion and achieve uniaxial water flow, four sides of the samples are
sealed with paraffin wax and the other opposite faces are released
open. The initial weights of the specimens are measured as 0.01 g.
Then, the surface of the specimen exposes to water at about 4–5
mm by putting it in a salver to provide water access to the inflow
surface. The specimens are weighted before and after submerging
for 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 240, 300, 360, 420, 480, 540, 600
and 1440 min, then the sorptivity coefficient K can be calculated
by the following formula:
DW pffiffi
i¼ ¼K t
Aqw
where i-Specific water absorption, mm; 4W-Cumulative water
absorbing quality at various times, g; A-the cross section of speci-
men that is in contact with water, mm2; qw-Water density, 1 g/
cm3; K-Sorptivity coefficient, mm/min0.5; t-Water absorption time,
min.
To determine the soptivity coefficient, the specific water
pffiffi
absorption i is plotted against the square root of time ( t), then,
Fig. 5. Influence of standard curing time on carbonation depth of concrete.
K is calculated from the slop of the linear relation between i and
pffiffi
t.
2.3.3. Rapid chloride permeability
The permeability of concrete to chloride ions is evaluated based
on the charge passed as measured in the RCPT in accordance with
the procedures described in ASTM C1202 [19]. Three specimens of
100 mm in diameter and 50 mm in thickness conditioned accord-
ing to the standards are subjected to 60 V potential for 6 h. The
total charge passed through the concrete specimens is determined
and used to evaluate the chloride ion permeability of each concrete
mixture.
ð2Þ
2.3.4. Carbonation
In accordance with Chinese standard GB/T 50082 [20], when
concrete specimens with dimensions of 100  100100 mm finish
curing at 28d, they are exposed to accelerated carbonation appara-
tus with carbon dioxide gas concentration at 20 ± 3%, temperature
at 20 ± 2 °C and RH at 70 ± 5% for 3d, 7d, 14 d and 28 d respectively.
Measurement of carbonation depth is according to the procedures
in Chinese standard GB/T 50082 [20].
 B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371
2.4. Curing conditions
When the influence of the curing time is studied, four different
curing regimes are applied to the specimens before the tests: (i)
28d air curing, (ii) an initial standard curing for 3d, further 25d
air curing, (iii) an initial standard curing for 7d, further 21d air cur-
ing, and (iv) 28d standard curing. For air curing, the average tem-
perature is about 30 °C, and the average relative humidity is
about 80%. For standard curing, the temperature is 20 ± 2 °C, and
the relative humidity is more than 95%.
When the influence of the curing humidity is studied, three dif-
ferent curing regimes are applied to the specimens before the
tests: (i) 28d air curing (the average temperature is about 20 °C,
and the average relative humidity is about 70%), (ii) 28d dry curing
(the temperature is 20 °C, and the relative humidity is 60%), and
(iii) 28d humidity curing (the temperature is 20 °C, and the relative
humidity is 90%).
When the influence of the curing temperature is studied, three
different curing regimes are applied to the specimens for 24 h: (i)
air curing, (ii) film-covered curing at 20 °C, and (iii) film-covered
curing at 35 °C. For air curing, the average temperature is about
20 °C, and the average relative humidity is about 80%. All speci-
mens are air cured to 28d after demoulding.
Fig. 6. Relationship between water absorption and sorptivity coefficient.
Fig. 7. Relationship between water absorption and electric flux.
363
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Influence of curing time
3.1.1. Water absorption
The influence of the curing time on the water absorption of con-
crete is shown in Fig. 1. The water absorption of concrete decreases
with the increasing of standard curing time, wet curing is benefi-
cial to the hydration of cement and mineral admixtures [7–9,21].
Air curing is high temperature and dry environment, the free water
in concrete is easy to be evaporated, which results in a porous sur-
face of concrete. When the standard curing time is 7d or 28d, the
hydration of cement and GGBFS is adequate, and the hydration
products will fill in the pores of concrete, which results in the
reduction of the porosity and water absorption of concrete. The
concrete with high volume mineral admixtures, especially high
volume fly ash is more vulnerable to dry curing conditions than
ordinary concrete [7]. The water absorption of concrete decreases
with the increasing of GGBFS content, the water absorption of
FA50 is the maximum and that of S50 is the minimum. Regardless
of glass content and composition, fly ash in cement concrete cured
at 20 °C does not react until 7 days [22], GGBFS has higher hydra-
tion activity, so the water absorption of concrete decreases with
the increase of GGBFS content.
Fig. 8. Relationship between water absorption and 28d carbonation depth.
Fig. 9. Influence of curing humility on water absorption of concrete.
364 B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371
3.1.2. Capillary water absorption
Sorptivity is an easily measurable material property that fea-
tures the tendency of a porous material to absorb and transmit
water through the capillary, and the sorptivity test indirectly indi-
cates the void volume and supports the water retention test [23].
The influence of the curing time on the specific water absorption
of concrete is shown in Fig. 2. The specific water absorption of con-
crete increases with the absorbing time, but the later growth
decreases gradually. The results obtained by Martys et al. [24]
show that the capillary absorption of water in concrete exhibits
complex time dependence, the reason for the reduction of growth
of capillary water absorption during the later period is meeting
greater resistance from the smaller gel pores.
As seen from Fig. 2, the specific water absorption of concrete
decreases with the curing time at the same absorbing time. The
specific water absorption of concrete without standard curing is
higher than that with standard curing, even 3d standard curing
can significantly reduce the specific water absorption of
Fig. 10. Influence of curing humidity on specific water absorption of concrete.
concrete. With the extension of standard curing time, the speci-
fic water absorption of concrete decreases, but the reduction
extent of specific water absorption decreases. Thus the early
standard curing is very important for concrete with high
volume mineral admixtures, and has important influence on
the hydration of binders and micro-pores of concrete, and espe-
cially the influence on the pore structure of concrete surface is
very obvious.
The specific water absorption of concrete decrease with GGBFS
content, and that of FA50 is the maximum. The capillary water
absorption of all concretes without standard curing is higher, and
that of concrete with different content of fly ash and GGBFS has
less difference, which means that the hydration degree of GGBFS
and fly ash is low under the condition of air curing, and the
improvement for concrete pore structure is less. The initial curing
condition has significant effect on the transport properties, and the
concrete with mineral admixtures will perform extremely well
when initially cured in wet conditions [25].
 B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371 365

The sorptivity coefficient K can reflect the surface characteris- The carbonation depth of concrete decreases with the increas-
tics of the concrete, and is determined by the porosity and pore ing of GGBFS content, F50 has the worst carbonation resistance,
size of concrete surface. As seen from Fig. 3. The sorptivity coeffi- and S50 has the best carbonation resistance. As known, content
cient decreases with the increasing of the standard curing time of calcium hydroxide and carbon dioxide penetration rate are the
and the content of GGBFS. Longer time standard curing can two key factors controlling concrete carbonation rate [32]. GGBFS
improve the hydration degree of cement and mineral admixtures, is generally much more active than fly ash, therefore, concrete with
and improve the density of concrete. The reduction of the porosity GGBFS having lower calcium hydroxide content and denser matrix
of concrete can result in the reduction of the sorptivity coefficient. shows a better carbonation resistance than concrete with fly ash.
In addition, the incorporation of GGBFS can change the pore struc- The results obtained by Gonen et al. [33] show that the depth of
ture of concrete, and reduce the porosity of concrete. carbonation in concrete mixtures containing fly ash is slightly
higher than that of concrete without fly ash, and the incorporation
3.1.3. Electric flux of 15–40% fly ash exhibits higher rate of carbonation.
The influence of the standard curing time on the electric flux of
concrete is shown in Fig. 4. The electric flux of the concrete 3.1.5. Relationship between the permeability of concrete
decreases with the increasing of standard curing time and that of The water absorption of concrete reflects the open porosity of
concrete with 7d and 28d standard curing is similar, which means concrete, and the sorptivity coefficient, electric flux and carbona-
that the initial curing is very important to improve the density of tion depth of concrete are more or less relevant to the open pores,
concrete, and 7d wet curing is essential for the permeability of con- so there is a relationship between the water absorption and these
crete. When GGBFS is added in the mix, the electric flux of concrete properties of concrete.
is significantly reduced, and when the content of GGBFS is more As seen from Fig. 6, the sorptivity coefficient of concrete
than 20%, the electric flux of concrete changes less. Usually chlo- increases with the increase of the water absorption. The water
rides penetrate in concrete by diffusion along water paths or open absorption reflects the open porosity of the whole specimen, while
pores [26]. The formation of a less porous, denser microstructure
and a discontinuous pore system becomes critical for reduced chlo-
ride ion permeability, and the pozzolanic reactions seem to be able
to develop a discontinuous pore system more readily [27]. In addi-
tion, the chloride ion penetration depends on the chloride binding
capacity of the constituent materials. Some of these chlorides can
react with the cement compounds, mainly C3A, forming stable
chlorocomplexes, and the excess of chloride is free and leads to
the initiation of the corrosion process [26]. The results obtained
by Uysal et al. [27] show that the concrete incorporating more
fly ash and GGBFS content (with high amounts of alumina con-
tents) exhibits a much better resistance to chloride ion penetra-
tion, and the alumina content has a significant influence on the
total charge of the concrete. It has generally been accepted that
GGBFS has good the chloride binding capacity [28,29], but the
results obtained by Thomas et al. [30] show that no clear relation-
ship exists between the chloride binding capacity and the total cal-
cium or alumina content of fly ash, and different fly ash shows
different chlorine binding capacity, which is probably the reason
that the electric flux decreases significantly with the GGBFS
content.

3.1.4. Carbonation Fig. 11. influence of curing humidity on sorptivity coefficient of concrete.
The influence of standard the curing time on the carbonation
depth of concrete is shown in Fig. 5. The carbonation depth of con-
crete increases with the increasing of the carbonation time, the
early growth is large, and the late growth is small. At the initial
stage of carbonation, CO2 is easy to penetrate into the pores of con-
crete, and reacts with the alkaline hydration products in concrete,
which reduces the alkalinity of concrete. The formation of CaCO3
resulted from the reaction between CO2 and the alkaline hydration
products can fill in the pores of surface concrete, and slow down
the penetration rate of CO2, so the later carbonation rate decreases.
As seen from Fig. 5, the carbonation depth of concrete with the
air curing at the same carbonization time is similar, and the car-
bonation depth of concrete decreases with the increasing of stan-
dard time. When the concrete after demoulding is directly cured
in the air, the water loss rate of surface concrete is faster, so the
open pores on surface concrete are more. The early curing of con-
crete with mineral admixture is very important [15,31], 7d stan-
dard curing can significantly improve the carbonation resistance
of concrete, therefore, it is necessary to extend the early wet curing
time of concrete with mineral admixtures in order to improve its
carbonation resistance. Fig. 12. Influence of curing humidity on electric flux of concrete.
366 B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371

Fig. 13. Influence of curing humidity on carbonation depth of concrete.

Fig. 14. Relationship between water absorption and sorptivity coefficient. Fig. 15. Relationship between water absorption and electric flux.
 B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371 367

the sorptivity coefficient reflects the water absorption capacity of
the open pores on the surface concrete contacting with water by
the capillary action, and is related to the pore characteristics.
Under the condition of air curing, this relationship is not obvious,
which may be related to the connected pores resulted from the
transformation and evaporation of water on the surface of
concrete.
RCPT is useful to determine the relative permeability of con-
crete in spite of questions concerning its theoretical relevance
[34–36], and the chloride permeability of concrete depends on
the pore structure. As seen from Fig. 7, the electric flux of concrete
increases with the increase of the water absorption. Even if the
concrete single mixed fly ash has lower water absorption, but
has higher electric flux, which should be related to different chlo-
ride binding capacity of fly ash and GGBFS.
As seen from Fig. 8, the carbonation depth of concrete increases
with the increase of the water absorption. The air curing concrete
has highest water absorption and carbonation depth, while 28d
standard curing concrete has the lowest. Although the carbonation
is the penetration of gas into concrete and the carbonation depth is
also related to carbonation reaction, but the carbonation depth of
concrete is also closely related to the open pores of concrete.
3.2. Influence of curing humidity
humility is favorable to the development of the porous structure.
Before exposing the concrete to the accelerated carbonation test,
the longer initial curing period results in lower carbonation depth,
and the effect is more marked with moist curing [37].
It can also be seen from Fig. 13, the carbonation rate of concrete
before 7d is significantly higher than that after 7d. When the cur-
ing humidity is the same, the carbonation depth of concrete is
reduced with the increase of the GGBFS content. When the content
of GGBFS is more than 30%, the carbonation depth is obviously
lower than that of the GGBFS content less than 30%. When the min-
eral admixtures are used to replace cement, the carbonation resis-
tance of concrete with fly ash and GGBFS is better than that only
with fly ash.
3.2.5. Relationship between the permeability of concrete
As seen from Fig. 14, the sorptivity coefficient of concrete
increases with the increase of the water absorption, and there is
a linear relationship. As seen from Fig. 15, the electric flux of con-
crete increases with the increase of the water absorption, high
GGBFS content and high humidity is conducive to reduce the water
absorption and the electric flux of the concrete. As seen from
Fig. 16, the carbonation depth of concrete increases with the
increase of the water absorption. The carbonation depth and water

3.2.1. Water absorption

The influence of the curing humility on the water absorption of
concrete is shown in Fig. 9. The water absorption of concrete
decreases with the increasing of the curing humility, lower curing
humidity is more unfavorable to the hydration of cement and min-
eral admixtures in concrete, which can increase the porosity of
concrete, especially the porosity on the surface concrete. The water
absorption of concrete decreases with the increase of GGBFS con-
tent, and the water absorption of S50 is less than that of FA50,
the reason is that the activity of fly ash is less than that of GGBFS,
and its early hydration degree is very low.

3.2.2. Capillary water absorption

The influence of the curing humidity on the specific water
absorption of concrete is shown in Fig. 10. The specific water
absorption of concrete is reduced with the increase of the curing
humidity and GGBFS content. Higher curing humidity can effec-
tively improve the surface structure of concrete, so as to improve
the ability of concrete to resist the erosion of the external environ-
Fig. 16. Relationship between water absorption and 28d carbonation depth.
ment. The specific water absorption of concrete with GGBFS is less
than that with fly ash.
The influence of the curing humidity on the sorptivity coeffi-
cient of concrete is shown in Fig. 11. The sorptivity coefficient of
concrete is reduced with the increase of the curing humidity and
GGBFS content, which is same as the influence of the standard cur-
ing time. Higher curing humidity and higher GGBFS content can
effectively increase the density and improve the pore structure of
concrete, so reduce the sorptivity coefficient of concrete.

3.2.3. Electric flux

The influence of the curing humidity on the electric flux of con-
crete is shown in Fig. 12. The electric flux of concrete decreases
with the increase of the curing humidity, high humidity is benefi-
cial to the hydration of cement and mineral admixtures. The elec-
tric flux of concrete decreases with the increase of GGBFS content,
the concretes only with fly ash (FA50) have highest electric flux.

3.2.4. Carbonation
The influence of the curing humidity on the carbonation depth
of concrete is shown Fig. 13. The carbonation depth of concrete
decreases with the increase of the curing humidity, high curing Fig. 17. Influence of curing temperature on water absorption of concrete.
368 B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371
absorption of concrete are not only related to the curing humidity,
but also to the content of GGBFS and fly ash in concrete.
3.3. Curing temperature
3.3.1. Water absorption
The influence of the curing temperature on the water absorp-
tion of concrete is shown in Fig. 17. The water absorption of con-
crete with curing temperature of 20 °C is lower than that of 35
°C. Higher treatment temperature can result in a less uniform dis-
tribution of hydration products due to the rapid initial hydration
[38]. The water absorption of concrete decreases with the increas-
ing of GGBFS content and that is attributed to the activity different
between fly ash and GGBFS.
3.3.2. Capillary water absorption
The influence of the curing temperature on the specific water
absorption of concrete is shown in Fig. 18. The specific water
Fig. 18. Influence of curing temperature on specific water absorption of concrete.
absorption of concrete increases with the increasing of the curing
temperature and that is attributed to the increase of porosity and
microcracks caused by early high temperature curing, especially
the increase of open pores on surface concrete.
It can be seen from the Fig. 18, the specific water absorption of
concrete decreases with the increasing of GGBFS content, the con-
tent of fly ash in concrete is higher, and the specific water absorp-
tion of concrete is higher. Higher curing temperature is beneficial
to the hydration of mineral admixtures, and GGBFS can produce
more hydration products than fly ash.
The influence of the curing temperature on the sorptivity coef-
ficient of concrete is shown in Fig. 19. The sorptivity coefficient of
concrete increases with the increasing of the curing temperature,
high temperature curing concretes are more porous as indicated
by the much higher sorptivity coefficient compared with standard
curing concretes [39]. Although the fast hydration due to temper-
atures increases at the beginning, it appears that capillary cracks
occur and the sorptivity coefficient increases during fast hydration
 B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371
[13]. When the curing temperature is the same, the sorptivity coef-
ficient of concrete is reduced with the increase of the GGBFS con-
tent. At the same time, the sorptivity coefficient of concrete with
mineral admixtures increases with the increase of the curing tem-
perature. This situation can be explained by the pozzolanic prop-
erty of GGBFS [13].
3.3.3. Electric flux
The influence of the curing temperature on the electric flux of
concrete is shown in Fig. 20. The electric flux of concrete cured
at 35 °C is the maximum, which is consistent with the results of
the water absorption, but the effect of the curing temperature on
the electric flux is less, and the mineral admixtures have greater
influence. The high curing temperature can promote the hydration
reaction between SiO2 and Al2O3 in mineral admixtures and the
hydration products of cement to produce hydrated calcium silicate
and hydrated calcium aluminate. At the same time, the hydration
of cement will be accelerated, and the hydration products cannot
evenly be dispersed [38]. In addition, with the increase of the
GGBFS content, the 6 h electric flux of concrete decreases.
3.3.4. Carbonation
The influence of the curing temperature on the carbonation
depth of concrete is shown in Fig. 21.The carbonation depth of
Fig. 19. Influence of curing temperature on sorptivity coefficient of concrete.
Fig. 20. Influence of curing temperature on electric flux of concrete.
369
concrete cured at 35 °C is greater than that cured at 20 °C or air
curing. Because the activity of GGBFS is higher than that of fly
ash, under the same curing condition, its hydration degree is
higher [13,21]. The carbonation depth of concrete decreases with
the increasing of GGBFS content and that is attributed to the activ-
ity different between fly ash and GGBFS.
3.3.5. Relationship between the permeability of concrete
As seen from Fig. 22, the sorptivity coefficient of concrete
increases with the increase of the water absorption. As seen from
Fig. 23, the electric flux of the concrete increases with the increas-
ing of the water absorption of concrete. The specimens are cured at
20 °C or cured in the air for only 1d, and the average temperature
of the air curing is 20 °C, so the test results of concrete cured 20 °C
is same as that of air curing. For concrete cured at 35 °C, the rela-
tionship between the water absorption and the electric flux is dif-
ferent, the concretes with higher water absorption has similar
electric flux, which may be related to the penetration way and
the internal density of concrete. As seen from Fig. 24, the relation-
ship between the water absorption and the 28d carbonation depth
is similar to that between the water absorption and electric flux.
28d carbonation depth increases with the increasing of the water
absorption, when the water absorption of concrete is the same,
and the concrete cured at 35 °C has lower carbonation depth.
4. Conclusions
This paper mainly studies the effect of curing conditions on the
permeability of concrete with high volume mineral admixtures,
and the main conclusions are acquired as following:
1) The water absorption, capillary water absorption, sorptivity
coefficient, electric flux and carbonation depth decrease
with the increasing of the standard curing time and GGBFS
content. The standard curing is beneficial to the hydration
of cement and mineral admixtures, and the hydration prod-
ucts increase the density of concrete, thus improving the
impermeability of concrete. 3d standard curing is sufficient
to improve significantly anti-permeability of concrete. As
the activity of GGBFS is higher than that of fly ash, so the
permeability of concrete with GGBFS decreases.
2) The water absorption, capillary water absorption, sorptivity
coefficient, electric flux and carbonation depth decrease
with the increasing of the curing humidity and GGBFS con-
tent. The increase of curing humidity and the increase of
the content of GGBFS will help to reduce the porosity of con-
crete. Long time moisture curing is critical to the retention of
moisture on concrete surface and the hydration of cement
and mineral admixtures.
3) The water absorption, capillary water absorption, sorptivity
coefficient, electric flux and carbonation depth decrease
with the increasing of the curing temperature and GGBFS
content. Although early high temperature curing can pro-
mote the early hydration of cement and mineral admixtures,
and the hydration products increase, but the increase of
pores, microcracks and coarser microstructure due to tem-
perature increase and fast hydration will reduce the perme-
ability of concrete.
4) The sorptivity coefficient, electric flux and 28d carbonation
depth concrete are related to the open porosity of concrete,
and the relationship between the water absorption and the
sorptivity coefficient is linear. Because the penetration
mechanism of water is different from that of chloride ion
and gas, the relationship between water absorption and flux
or 28d carbonation depth of concrete is different.
370 B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371

Fig. 21. Influence of curing temperature on carbonation depth of concrete.

Fig. 22. Relationship between water absorption and sorptivity coefficient. Fig. 23. Relationship between water absorption and electric flux.
 B. Liu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 167 (2018) 359–371
Fig. 24. Relationship between water absorption and 28d carbonation depth.
5) As a result, the effect of curing conditions as time, humidity
and temperature on the permeability of concrete has to be
taken into account, especially curing conditions of concretes
containing high volume mineral admixtures should be
considered.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank the financial supports from the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1534207).
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