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Role of water cement ratio on the cement mortar

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 Journal of Building Engineering 4 (2015) 94–100

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Building Engineering

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

Role of water/cement ratio on strength development of cement mortar

S.B. Singh n, Pankaj Munjal, Nikesh Thammishetti
Civil Engineering Department, BITS Pilani, 333031, India

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The effect of water/cement (w/c) ratio on the mechanical properties such as compressive strength and
Received 28 March 2015 split tensile strength of cement mortar cylinders and cubes was investigated experimentally for 28 days
Received in revised form curing period as per IS standard. Based upon the experimental results, empirical equations have been
3 September 2015
developed to predict the strength of cement mortar mixes with various w/c ratios. It is observed that
Accepted 3 September 2015
Available online 8 September 2015
Abrams’ law is applicable for the cement mortar also. The cement mortar contains varying proportions of
portland pozzolana cement (PPC) and river sand such as 1:3, 1:4, 1:5, 1:6, 1:7, 1:8 with different w/c
Keywords: ratios. An empirical equation has been developed between split tensile strength and compressive
Abrams’ law strength of cement mortar. Results show that compressive strength and split tensile strength of cement
Cement mortar
mortar decreased with an increase in the w/c ratio. It is observed that minimum w/c ratio required to
Compressive strength
make the cement mortar workable is 0.5.
Split tensile strength
Water/cement ratio (w/c) & 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
A well established fact in the cement industry speaks that an
excessive water content leads to reduction in strength of cement
mortar, but insufficient water content incurs a poor workability.
Hence, a method for determining the optimum water content and
influence of w/c ratio on cement mortar is obviously desirable.
Quality control unit involves tight control of w/c ratio for concrete
materials. But in the case of cement mortar, more water is deemed
requisite by the mason to make the mixture workable enough for
his comfort zone. Therefore, it is appropriate to see the influence
of w/c ratio for mortar strength.
Haach et al. [1] investigated the influence of aggregate grading
and w/c ratio on the workability and compressive strength of
mortar. Authors [1] observed that increase in w/c ratio has reduced
the value of mechanical properties and increased the workability.
In another study by Schulze [2], the influence of w/c ratio and
cement content on the properties of polymer-modified mortar has
been of acute interest. Kim et al. [3] observed that for increase in
w/c ratio of cement mortar from 0.45 to 0.60, porosity went up to
150% and compressive strength has reduced to 75.6%. Zhou et al.
[4] observed that dynamic compressive strength of cement mortar
increased with decrease in water content. The dynamic compres-
sive strength of saturated specimen was 23% lower than that of
n
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: sbsinghbits@gmail.com,
sbsingh@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in (S.B. Singh),
pankaj710munjal@gmail.com (P. Munjal),
nikeshthammishetti@gmail.com (N. Thammishetti).
totally dry specimen. Ji-Kai and Li-Mei [5] observed that fracture
behavior of low w/c ratio mortar is more brittle than that of mortar
with high w/c ratio. Zivica [6] studied the effect of low w/c on the
pore structure and compressive strength of the cement paste. Fi-
neness modulus of sand also influences the w/c ratio of the mortar.
Lim et al. [7] have stated that finer sand grading specimen requires
a higher w/c ratio to achieve an equivalent workability. It has also
been observed by authors [7] that mortar with coarse sand has
higher compressive strength than those of the finer sand when the
w/c ratio is lower. Study has also shown that influence of sand
grading affects the properties of mortar [8–11]. By experimental
investigations, Authors [8] observed 55–60% reduction in tensile
bond strength as fineness modulus of sand changes from 3.21 to
1.72. As the surface area of sand increases, more paste is needed to
cover the surface to attain certain viscosity [10–11].
In case of concrete, It has been shown that compressive
strength varies inversely with the w/c ratio through the Abram’s
generalization law. The Abram’s law developed for strength of
concrete is given below [12].
K1
Strength = w
K2c (1)
where K1 and K2 are constants, w is mass of water and c is mass of
cement. This formula is valid over the range of w/c ratio of 0.3–
1.20. Abrams’ law is well known for relation of strength and w/c
ratio of the concrete. Yeh [13] has confirmed that application of
the Abrams’ law is valid to any duration between 3 and 365 days of
concrete age. Rao [14] developed the empirical model expressions
to predict the compressive strength and split tensile strength of

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2015.09.003
2352-7102/& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 S.B. Singh et al. / Journal of Building Engineering 4 (2015) 94–100 95

Table 1 Table 3
Physical properties of portland pozzolana cement Properties of fine aggregates (sand).
(PPC).
Properties Values
PPC properties Test results
Fineness modulus 3.5
Blaine Fineness (m2/kg) 375 Specific Gravity 2.42
Specific Gravity 3.15 Silt content (%) 2.5
Normal Consistency (%) 30.8 Bulking of Sand (%) 22
Initial and Final setting time (min) 28 and 550
% Flyash addition 30
Soundness: Le-chat expansion (mm) 1.00 2. Experimental details

2.1. Material and mix design

Table 2 An adequate number of cement mortar specimens with various

Chemical properties of portland pozzolana cement (PPC).
w/c ratios have been prepared to study its effect on the strength of
Chemical composition Percentage by mass mortar. Portland pozzolana cement (PPC) as a binder and local
river sand for the fine aggregate were used to prepare the mortar
Calcium Oxide (CaO) 43.50
specimens. Portland pozzolana cement is ordinary portland ce-
Silicon Dioxide (SiO2) 30.60
Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3) 10.05 ment blended or interground with pozzolanic materials such as fly
Ferric Oxide (Fe2O3) 4.32 ash, calcined clay, rice husk ash, etc. Tables 1 and 2 depict the
Alkalies (Na2O equivalent) 0.56
physical and chemical properties of cement. The fine aggregates
Magnesium Oxide (MgO) 1.01
Sulfur Trioxide (SO3) 1.95 passing through 4.75 mm sieve has been used and its particle size
Loss of Ignition (LOI) 2.80 distribution is given in Fig. 1. The material properties of fine ag-
gregate is given in Table 3. In this work, five mixes of cement: sand
Clinker Analysis proportions (1:3, 1:4, 1:5, 1:6 and 1:7) with different w/c ratio
Tricalcium Silicate in clinker (C3S) 48.5 varying from 0.5 to 1.2 were prepared by weight batching. The
Dicalcium Silicate in clinker (C2S) 24.5
Tricalcium Aluminate in clinker (C3A) 7.8 cement mortar mix were prepared in the Hobart mixer for 2–
Tetracalcium Aluminoferrite in clinker (C4AF) 14.3 3 min of mixing. After mixing the mortar, six cylinders of size
76.2 mm  152.4 mm and three cubes of size
(70.7  70.7  70.7 mm3) were cast. A thin layer of release agent
mortar using w/c ratio based upon Abram’s law and observed that
was spread on the interiors of the moulds using a clean brush and
it is applicable to mortars with w/c ratio greater than 0.40. Gen-
then a paste of cement mortar was poured into the mould. Excess
erally, It has been observed that mechanical properties of the ce-
mortar was struck off with a metallic trowel across the top of the
ment mortar are primarily affected by the w/c ratio, cement/sand
mould. The mould was then placed on the vibrating table and
ratio, type of cementitious material, and properties of aggregate.
The objective of this paper is to determine the influence of w/c vibrated for 2 min at a speed of 12,000 7400 per minute to
ratio on the cement mortar’s mechanical properties such as achieve full compaction. Specimens were left in the mould inside
compressive strength and split tensile strength and examine the the moist room (temperature 277 2 °C and relative humidity 65%
validity of the Abram’s law for cement mortar. Moreover, empirical 75) for a period of 24 h. The specimens were removed from the
equations are developed to predict the strength of cement mortar mould and placed inside the curing tank at temperature of
for different proportions of w/c ratios. 27 72 °C for 28 days.

Fig. 1. Particle size distribution curve of sand.

96 S.B. Singh et al. / Journal of Building Engineering 4 (2015) 94–100

Table 4
Compressive strengths of cube and cylinder specimens from experimental and
analytical predicted.

Cement: w/c Cube % COV rC28, % Differ- Cylinder % COV

Sand comp. Eq ence (rC28, comp.
strength (MPa) Eq rC28, strength,
rC28, exp Eq. (4) exp) exp.
(MPa) (MPa)

1:3 0.5 22.46 5.25 24.02 6.49 18.42 6.54

0.6 22.99 2.69 22.02 4.41 19.31 5.12
0.7 20.85 1.98 20.53 1.56 17.72 4.89
0.8 19.94 3.65 19.32 3.21 16.75 7.58
0.9 18.75 4.65 18.31 2.40 15.94 4.98
1 17.20 6.89 17.46 1.49 14.45 5.68
1.1 16.89 2.65 16.72 1.02 13.85 8.45
1.2 15.36 4.95 16.07 4.42 13.06 7.65
1:4 0.5 19.34 5.68 21.29 9.16 15.86 8.65
0.6 20.91 2.61 19.31 8.29 17.36 6.32
0.7 18.69 1.98 17.78 5.12 16.26 6.79
0.8 16.79 4.87 16.55 1.45 14.94 7.65
0.9 15.74 1.88 15.54 1.29 13.38 9.54
1 14.16 5.65 14.68 3.54 12.46 8.75
1.1 13.78 5.89 13.95 1.22 11.99 9.15
1.2 13.15 4.98 13.32 1.28 11.31 9.54
1:5 0.6 15.44 4.54 16.05 3.80 12.66 8.75
0.7 13.82 3.51 14.13 2.19 12.16 9.65
0.8 12.66 2.68 12.66 0.00 11.01 7.68
0.9 11.78 1.98 11.49 2.52 10.25 5.98
1 10.89 4.58 10.53 3.42 9.15 6.82
Fig. 3. Typical specimen failure under compressive strength test of cement mortar.
1.1 9.46 5.69 9.73 2.77 8.32 8.54
1.2 8.76 6.35 9.06 3.31 7.88 6.98
1:6 0.6 9.46 5.87 11.07 14.54 8.51 6.35
0.7 10.76 1.78 9.32 15.45 9.25 7.45
0.8 8.75 3.65 8.03 8.97 7.70 8.65
0.9 7.16 4.98 7.04 1.70 6.23 9.65
1 6.16 5.68 6.26 1.60 5.48 8.45
1.1 5.35 6.45 5.62 4.80 4.60 7.25
1.2 4.99 5.85 5.10 2.16 4.34 6.78
1:7 0.7 5.75 4.15 6.51 11.64 5.00 8.97
0.8 6.03 3.85 5.51 9.44 5.37 9.54
0.9 5.13 5.54 4.76 7.77 4.36 5.65
1 4.47 3.65 4.17 7.19 4.02 7.89
1.1 3.56 2.89 3.71 4.04 3.03 8.54
1.2 3.11 5.14 3.32 6.33 2.71 7.85

Fig. 4. Typical cube specimen failure under compressive strength test of cement
mortar.

Fig. 5. Relationship between experimental compressive strength of cement mortar

Fig. 2. Bulging of specimen during compressive strength test of cement mortar. and water cement ratio.
 S.B. Singh et al. / Journal of Building Engineering 4 (2015) 94–100 97

Fig. 6. Relationship between predicted compressive strength of cement mortar and water cement ratio.

Table 5
Values of strength parameters.

Cement: n1 n2 Regression A B Regression n3 n4 Regression C D Regression

Sand coefficient coefficient coefficient coefficient

1:3 17.46 0.46 0.93 6.39 11.16 0.88 1.32 0.54 0.91 0.61 0.72 0.86
1:4 14.68 0.54 0.90 6.48 8.30 0.84 1.04 0.73 0.88 0.64 0.43 0.82
1:5 10.53 0.83 0.93 7.99 2.60 9.00 0.85 0.64 0.86 0.59 0.33 0.81
1:6 6.26 1.12 0.90 6.69 0.31 0.83 0.72 0.68 0.89 0.43 0.29 0.84
1:7 4.17 1.25 0.89 4.90 0.67 0.86 0.52 0.94 0.87 0.45 0.07 0.83

2.2. Experimental methods and test procedure
2.2.1. Compression strength
The compressive strength of cement mortar is considered to be
one of the most important aspects of masonry structures. Three
cylindrical and three cube specimens were tested for each mix in
Universal Testing Machine as per IS 2250:1981 [15] after 28 days.
Compressive strength (sC) was measured by placing the specimens
in the contact of bearing surface of the Universal Testing Machine
(UTM) and the load was applied at the rate of 2–5 N/mm2 per
minute until failure occurs. The compressive strength was calcu-
lated by dividing the maximum load applied to the specimen
during the test by cross sectional area.
2.2.2. Split tensile strength
Tensile strength is one of the important properties of cement
mortar. In the case of masonry, influence of bond–strength is what
makes the study of tensile strength more significant. The tensile
strength of cement mortar was measured as per the IS 5816-1999
[16] and BS 1881-Part 117 [17] standards. IS 5816 [16] indicates
that maximum tensile stress can be calculated using Eq. (2). In this
equation P is load applied to the specimen; l, d are length and
diameter of the specimen, respectively and fct is split tensile
strength.
2P
fct = The results of compressive strength of cube and cylindrical
πdl
3. Determination of optimum w/c ratio
It is necessary to evaluate optimum w/c ratio to fully exploit the
mechanical properties of cement mortar. Thanh [18] developed an
approach to calculate water quantity of cement mortar based upon
two purposes: firstly amount of water required to hydrate the
cement and second to lubricate the sand particle, based on its
specific surface. This can be represented by Eq. (3)
mw = ma wa + mc wc (3)
where mw is optimum mass of water, ma and mc are mass of ag-
gregate and cement, respectively and wa and wc are fractions. In
this paper, Eq. (3) is used to calculate the optimum water content
required for cement mortar. In this equation, optimum mass of
water required for given mass of cement (mc) and sand (ma) is
calculated using the fractional values of wa and wb. The values of
the fraction wa are around 0.08–0.11 based upon the specific sur-
face of sand (3.2–8.2 m2/kg) while the value of fraction wc is taken
as 0.21. According to the above formula, optimum water content
required for cement mortar (1:3, 1:4, 1:5, 1:6, 1:7) for giving
properties in Tables 1–3 are 0.54, 0.57, 0.61, 0.68 and 0.72 of w/c
ratios, respectively. From the experimental results, compressive
and split tensile strengths are maximum at w/c ratio of approxi-
mately 0.6 for cement mortar of 1:3, 1:4, 1:5 and 0.7 for 1:6, 1:7.
4. Experimental results and analysis
4.1. Compressive strength
(2)
specimens with coefficient of variations (% COV) are presented in
Table 4. The ratio of compressive strengths of 76.2 mm diameter
cylinder to compressive strength of 70.7 mm cube varied from
0.82 to 0.9. It is observed that the strength increases initially with
addition of water because of proper hydration of cement paste
with increasing water content. It may be noted that initially the
water content in the mortar was not sufficient for proper hydra-
tion process resulting into low strength. However, subsequent
98 S.B. Singh et al. / Journal of Building Engineering 4 (2015) 94–100

Table 6
Split tensile strengths of cylinder specimens from experimental and analytical
predicted.

Cement: w/c Cylinder split tensile % COV fct28, Eq % Difference

Sand strength fct28, exp (MPa) Eq.
(MPa) (6)

1:3 0.5 1.78 4.85 1.92 7.29

0.6 1.93 3.12 1.74 10.92
0.7 1.49 2.11 1.60 6.88
0.8 1.45 3.12 1.49 2.68
0.9 1.36 5.68 1.40 2.86
1 1.30 5.85 1.32 1.52
1.1 1.26 3.54 1.26 0.00
1.2 1.22 5.98 1.20 1.67
1:4 0.5 1.52 6.85 1.73 12.14
0.6 1.57 3.52 1.51 3.97
0.7 1.50 2.75 1.35 11.11 Fig. 8. Failure pattern of cylindrical specimen during split tensile strength.
0.8 1.35 5.45 1.23 9.76
0.9 1.15 2.65 1.13 1.77 ratio is greater than 0.40. Results show that compressive strength
1 0.98 6.89 1.04 5.77
of cement mortar with a varying w/c ratio follow the Abram’s Law.
1.1 0.93 7.12 0.97 4.12
1.2 0.90 6.98 0.91 1.10 Rao [14] has developed a general formula relating strength to w/c
1:5 0.6 1.19 6.54 1.19 0.00 ratio of the mortar proportions of 1:2, 1:2.5, 1:3. In this paper, a
0.7 1.24 4.65 1.08 14.81 more general expression for all the five mortar mixes i.e. 1:3, 1:4,
0.8 1.06 3.24 0.99 7.07
1:5, 1:6 and 1:7 are evaluated. The experimental results of com-
0.9 1.02 2.57 0.91 12.09
1 0.95 5.25 0.85 11.76 pressive strength of cube specimens with w/c ratio of the all five
1.1 0.90 6.98 0.80 12.50 mortars at the age of 28 days are shown in Fig. 5.
1.2 0.85 7.65 0.76 11.84 Generalized correlation has been derived as shown in Fig. 6 to
1:6 0.6 0.93 6.23 1.02 8.82
predict the 28-day compressive strength of cement mortar for all
0.7 1.01 2.92 0.92 9.78
0.8 0.87 4.19 0.84 3.57 the five mix groups as a function of w/c ratio using regression
0.9 0.76 5.85 0.77 1.30 analysis. In general, relationship between the 28 days compressive
1 0.72 6.95 0.72 0.00 strength and w/c ratio of cube specimens of cement mortar for
1.1 0.70 5.48 0.68 2.94
various cement sand ratio is given by Eq. (4).
1.2 0.68 4.87 0.64 6.25
1:7 0.7 0.65 3.65 0.73 10.96 σc = n1(w /c )n2 (4)
0.8 0.69 4.19 0.64 7.81
0.9 0.61 5.67 0.57 7.02 where parameters n1 and n2 are given in Table 5.
1 0.55 3.47 0.52 5.77
Based on the above equation, design strength of mortar for any
1.1 0.46 5.87 0.47 2.13
1.2 0.41 6.47 0.44 6.82 practical purpose could be calculated. The difference between the
results from above equation and experimental is less than 15% as
shown in Table 4.
Bolomey’s Eq. (5) has been used for relating the cement/water
ratio to compressive strengths of concrete [19]. A, B are the con-
stants depending on the material properties. In the present paper,
parameters A and B are evaluated in the Table 5 for all the five
mortar mixes (1:3, 1:4, 1:5, 1:6 and 1:7) of cube specimens.
A
fct = +B
(w /c ) (5)

4.2. Split tensile strength

The results of split tensile strength of cement mortar is pre-

Fig. 7. Split tensile strength of cylindrical specimen.
water addition leads to the reduction in strength as expected.
Various failure patterns of specimens subjected to compressive
strength test are shown in Figs. 2–4. Due to the high w/c ratio
specimens have undergone lateral bulging during the compressive
strength test as shown in Fig. 2. It has been observed that vertical
axial crack developed in the most of the specimens (Fig. 3). In case
of cubes under compression test, initial cracks were developed at
top and propagated to bottom with increase in load and then the
cracks are widened at failure along the edge of the cube shown in
Fig. 4.
Abram’s Law [14] is valid for high strength mortar when w/c
sented in Table 6 with coefficient of variations (% COV). Failure
modes of various split tensile strength specimens are shown in
Figs. 7 and 8. In case of cylinders subjected to split tensile strength,
the cylinder got splitted into two pieces as shown in Fig. 8. The 28-
day Split tensile strength data is presented in Fig. 9. It is shown
that with increase in water content, the split tensile strength de-
creases, as expected. Rao [14] developed the equations to predict
the split tensile strength of mortar with w/c ratio in all three
mortar mixes (1:2, 1:2.5, 1:3). In this paper, an empirical expres-
sion (Eq. (6)) has been derived (Fig. 10) to predict the split tensile
strength of cylinder specimens of cement mortar for various ce-
ment sand ratio at an age of 28 days.
fct = n3(w /c )n4 (6)
where parameters n3 and n4 are presented in Table 5 for all the five
 S.B. Singh et al. / Journal of Building Engineering 4 (2015) 94–100 99

Fig. 9. Relationship between experimental split tensile strength of cement mortar and water cement ratio.

Fig. 10. Relationship between predicted split tensile strength of cement mortar and water cement ratio.

Fig. 11. Relationship between split tensile strength and compressive strength of cement mortar.
100 S.B. Singh et al. / Journal of Building Engineering 4 (2015) 94–100
mortar mixes.
Similar to the compressive strengths of mortar, an expression
(Eq. (7)) has been developed for split tensile strength of cylinder
specimens also, where parameters C and D are presented in Ta-
ble 5 for all the five mortar mixes.
C References
fct = +D
(w /c )
From the above equations (Eqs. (6) and (7)) expressing re-
lationships between split tensile strength of mortar and w/c ratio,
it would be possible to estimate the design strength of mortar
required for any practical purpose. The difference between ex-
perimental and predicted results (Eq. (6)) is less than 14% as pre-
sented in Table 6.
Fig. 11 shows the nonlinear relation between the 28 days split
tensile strength and compressive strength of mortar. The split
tensile strength of any mortar at the age of 28 days can be esti-
mated using Eq. (8) as a function of compressive strength of
mortar. The regression coefficient is 0.97 for Eq. (8).
fct = 0.21 (σc ) 0.66
where fct and sc are in MPa.
5. Conclusions
The compressive strength of cement mortar at the age of 28
days has decreased with an increase in cement-to-sand propor-
tions. The influence of w/c ratio and cement-to-sand proportions
on compressive strength and split tensile strength of mortar are
presented through empirical equations. An expression for opti-
mum water content required for making workable mortar has
been performed. The decrease in cement content requires more
water for making mortar workable. Abrams’ law is inferred to be
applicable in the case of cement mortar too with different para-
meters. Empirical equations have been developed to predict the
compressive as well as split tensile strength of cement mortar for
different cement-to-sand ratio in terms of w/c. These results will
be helpful in design of cement mortar mix for masonry structures.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the support from the
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Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi (Grant#
SR/S3/MERC/051/2012) and Aditya Birla Group.
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