Materials and Structures (2007) 40:211220

DOI 10.1617/s11527-006-9132-x

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Experimental observation of internal water curing

of concrete
Pietro Lura Ole Mejlhede Jensen
Shin-Ichi Igarashi

Received: 15 August 2005 / Accepted: 12 January 2006 / Published online: 9 August 2006
C RILEM 2006


Abstract Internal water curing has a significant effect on concrete. In addition to affecting hydration
and moisture distribution, it influences most concrete
properties, such as strength, shrinkage, cracking, and
durability. The following paper is an overview of experimental methods to study internal water curing of
concrete and its consequences. The special techniques
needed to study internal water curing are dealt with
along with the consequences of this process. Examples of applications are given and new measuring techniques that may potentially be applied to this field are
addressed.
Keywords High-performance concrete . Shrinkage .
Curing . Autogenous strain
1. Introduction
Internal water curing affects many concrete properties,
some of which can be used as indicators of the characteristics of the internal water curing process and of its
effectiveness. A focus of internal water curing has been
to reduce the risk of early-age cracking of concrete. For
a comprehensive introduction to internal water curing,
P. Lura O. M. Jensen
Department of Civil Engineering, Technical University of
Denmark, Denmark
S.-I. Igarashi
Department of Civil Engineering, Kanazawa University,
Japan

the reader is referred to the work of RILEM Technical

Committee TC 196-ICC. A state of the art report is expected to be finalized in autumn 2006. A discussion of
the different techniques and materials that can be used
in internal water curing of concrete can be found in the
literature [1].
In this paper, consequences of the internal water curing process are presented, ranging from the most direct
to the most remote. Where relevant, measuring techniques applied to study internal water curing are described and the results briefly summarized; an extensive list of references is given. Measuring techniques
that may potentially address specific aspects of internal
water curing but have not been applied so far are also
mentioned.
Internal water curing agents, e.g. lightweight aggregates, LWA, and super absorbent polymers, SAP, may
themselves have a significant influence on many concrete properties. If large amounts of the internal water
curing agent are incorporated in the mixture, such as in
lightweight aggregate concrete, LWAC, it may be complicated to separate the consequences of internal water
curing from the consequences of the inclusion of the
internal water curing agent in the concrete mixture. For
example, internal water curing due to LWA reduces the
autogenous shrinkage, but incorporation of the LWA
may reduce the modulus of elasticity of the concrete,
potentially increasing its shrinkage.
In this paper, the focus is on the applications where
internal water curing is used purposefully to avoid selfdesiccation and its consequences. However, in the past

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decades, effects of internal water curing have been observed mostly in LWAC, where internal water curing
was only a beneficial side effect of the use of LWA;
therefore, observations and measurements on LWAC
will be mentioned when relevant.

2. Direct evidence of internal water curing

2.1. Internal relative humidity
Internal relative humidity (RH) is a measure of water
activity (chemical potential) in the cement paste. After
separation of the effect of dissolved salts in the pore
solution, the Kelvin radius can be calculated from the
internal RH [2]. Internally water cured pastes are ideally hydrating in saturated conditions, with access to
the separate water phase that is contained in the water
reservoir [3]. Consequently, they do not self-desiccate
and their internal RH remains close to 100% throughout hydration.
RH measurements with high-accuracy Rotronic stations (1% RH) have been performed on internally
cured mixes with LWA and SAP [4, 5], showing in all
cases higher internal RH throughout hydration compared to mixes without internal water curing, see Fig. 1.
Another technique for measuring internal RH in concrete is based on cast-in sensors. With RH sensors becoming less expensive and smaller, it is possible to embed them in a concrete structure [6] and monitor the internal RH on site with acceptable accuracy (2% RH)
for months. However, temperature variations affect the
measurements and should be taken into account.
2.2. Degree of saturation
In a cement paste hydrating with free access to external water, the pore system remains saturated throughout hydration. Therefore, the amount of water in the
coarse capillaries of a cement paste may indicate the
effectiveness of internal water curing. Since water in
the internal curing agents exists as loosely held water
in the LWA or in the SAP, special care should be taken
in the measurements to separate it from the capillary
water phase in the cement paste.
For Portland cement systems, Powers model provides a way to calculate the water distribution between
the different phases [3]. The amount of the capillary water phase can be calculated by measuring the evaporable

Materials and Structures (2007) 40:211220

and the non-evaporable water content during hydration

by drying followed by ignition, provided the water in
the internal curing agent can be separated from the pore
fluid in the cement paste.
The amount of water and its distribution in different pore sizes can be measured by a number of techniques, such as low temperature calorimetry [7], different types of neutron scattering [8], or techniques based
on nuclear magnetic resonance, such as relaxometry
[9], cryoporometry [9], magnetic resonance imaging,
and diffusometry. Nuclear magnetic resonance measurements are able to measure the amount of water in
pores of different size, which enables to distinguish between water in hydrating cement paste and water in the
internal curing agent. Preliminary experiments on the
nuclear magnetic resonance characterization of internal curing agents were conducted in [10]. With nuclear
magnetic resonance, a single sample can be followed
during hydration, while other techniques are often destructive and require multiple samples.
2.3. Sorption isotherm
Sorption isotherms of concrete with internal water curing may show differences from normal concrete [11].
From sorption isotherms, information can be derived
about the pore size distribution, the distribution of pore
fluid in the pores and the way water is held in the pores.
A possible source of error in the interpretation of the
sorption isotherms is that water in the internal curing
agent might be confused with water in the pore system
of the cement paste. In particular, a great part of the
moisture capacity at high RH might be due to the water
reservoirs.
Disadvantages of sorption isotherm measurements
are that multiple samples are needed to follow the concrete through hydration and that only measurements on
old samples are practical, since the measurements generally last for many months. Information on sorption
isotherms may be derived thermodynamically based on
RH measurements as discussed in [12].
Sorption isotherms on old LWAC samples cured
in sealed conditions [13] show higher moisture content in concrete with pre-wetted LWA compared to
dry LWA. Differences were observed between concrete
containing LWA with an open and coarse pore structure
(LECA) and concrete containing LWA with closed and
fine pore structure (Stalite): whereas the initial moisture content at saturation was very similar, the latter

Materials and Structures (2007) 40:211220

213

Fig. 1 Measured internal relative humidity during sealed hydration at 30 C of mortars with and without internal water curing,
modified from [4]. Water/cement ratio of the mortars is 0.35,
with 8% by mass replacement of cement by silica fume. Ref-

erence indicates the mortar with no internal curing, SAP the

mortar with super absorbent polymers, LWA08 and LWA20
the mortars with 8% and 20% by mass replacement of sand by
saturated lightweight aggregates, respectively

mixture showed higher moisture content, between 97%

and 55% RH, probably due to water entrapped in the
LWA.

calcium silicate hydrate, calcium hydroxide and ettringite at 360 days than at 180 days [15]. In [16], higher
non-evaporable water contents were measured on LWA
mortars compared to reference mortars without LWA.
Other possible techniques to estimate degree of hydration of internally water cured concrete include scanning
electron microscopy, solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, heat of hydration, and chemical shrinkage.

3. Primary consequences of internal water

curing
3.1. Degree of hydration
Availability of extra water for hydration and high water
activity lead to increased cement hydration in internally
water cured cement pastes with low water(cement ratio
(w/c) [3]. According to Powers model [14], hydration
of Portland cement in pastes with free access to water
stops when all the capillary pores are filled with hydration products or when all the cement has reacted. Based
on this concept, Fig. 2 shows the ultimate degree of hydration of pastes; at low w/c, differences are as high
as 20%. The ultimate degree of hydration in saturated
conditions is the theoretical maximum achievable in
the case of efficient internal water curing of the concrete. By measuring degree of hydration of internally
water cured concrete and comparing it with the results
of Powers model, or alternatively, with small reference
samples stored in water, an estimate of the efficiency
of internal water curing can be obtained.
In [15], concrete mixtures with low w/c containing saturated LWA were crushed and sieved to separate the cement paste, on which thermal gravimetric
analysis showed an increase of the degree of hydration
from 0.67 to 0.82 from 180 to 360 days after casting.
On the same mixtures, X-ray diffraction showed more

3.2. Internal water movement

When the cement paste self-desiccates due to hydration, a gradient in water activity is generated within the
concrete and water migrates from the water reservoirs
into the cement paste. Water movement within the concrete can be used as an indicator of the internal water
curing process and of its development in time.
In the simple experiment shown in Fig. 3, LWA particles saturated with a weak ink solution were cast in
low w/c cement paste [17]. Samples were split open at
regular intervals, showing a coloured corona around the
LWA particles that grew up to 1-mm thickness. However, this experiment does not allow distinguishing ink
movements due to water migration from diffusion of
ink particles in the pore fluid.
A significant reduction of the self-diffusion coefficient of water in cement pastes during hydration
was revealed by nuclear magnetic resonance diffusometry [18]. In the same study, water migration from
phenolphthalein-filled tablets was followed in a cement
paste with w/c 0.25 by monitoring the colour change in
the paste induced by the tracer. By combining the two

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Materials and Structures (2007) 40:211220

Fig. 2 Ultimate degree of

hydration according to
Powers model [3] of
cement pastes cured in
saturated and in sealed
conditions

Fig. 3 Coloured corona

expanding around a LWA
(Liapor) aggregate saturated
with weak ink solution and
cast in white Portland
cement paste of
water/cement ratio 0.3 [17]

types of experiments, the authors in [18] concluded

that phenolphthalein diffused for a distance of 2 mm
in the paste in the first day of hydration and very little
afterwards.
Measurements of X- and -rays attenuation are established techniques to analyze moisture profiles in
concrete; however, these techniques reveal density differences and are not very sensitive to water, which has a
comparatively low density. Since the amount of curing
water moving from the water reservoirs to the cement
paste is very small, these techniques are generally associated with large scatter. 1D X-ray absorption was
applied to study moisture profiles in pastes with SAP
[19] and with LWA [20]; in the latter study, a penetration distance of the water from the LWA rim of at least
4 mm was measured. Three-dimensional X-ray microtomography may provide an even more detailed view
of water transport during internal curing.

Magnetic resonance imaging was applied successfully to visualize water content of LWA [21] and evolution in time of moisture profiles of LWA cast in cement
paste [22]. With this technique it is possible to obtain moisture profiles with sub-millimetre resolution
[23]. Moisture profiles measured by proton-spin relaxation nuclear magnetic resonance possibly offer the additional advantage of measuring both free and bound
water at different locations.
An indirect measurement of penetration distance can
be obtained by measuring autogenous shrinkage reduction on mixtures with different spatial distributions of
the internal curing agent [24] (Section 3.3). According
to [24], in the first days of hardening, internal curing
water penetrated from water-saturated LWA into the
cement paste up to a depth of several mm, which is consistent with measurements by other techniques. Moreover, in cement pastes with low w/c or addition of silica

Materials and Structures (2007) 40:211220

fume, reduction of permeability of the cement matrix

decreased the penetration depth. However, if local expansion occurs in the internally-cured cement paste,
this would complicate the calculation of the penetration of the curing water from the reduction in overall
shrinkage of the concrete.
3.3. Autogenous strain
Since emptying of the capillary pores in internally water cured cement paste is compensated by the water
reservoirs, lower tensile stresses develop in the capillary water and self-desiccation shrinkage is consequently reduced [25]. Internally water cured concrete
might even expand in the first days after casting [5, 17].
Reduction of autogenous shrinkage is not only a proof
of the effectiveness of internal water curing, it is also its
most beneficial practical consequence [26]. It results in
lower self-induced stresses during restrained hardening
and in reduced risk of cracking of structures made with
low w/c concrete (Section 4.4).
However, the internal water curing agent itself may
affect the deformability of the concrete and thus influence the shrinkage in ways other than providing a
water reservoir. For instance, in LWAC, where large
amounts of LWA are introduced in the concrete mixture, the elastic modulus of the concrete is reduced.
This may potentially increase the shrinkage of the concrete, if some shrinkage of the cement paste is taking
place despite the internal water curing.
Reduction of autogenous shrinkage or occurrence of
expansion in sealed specimens were measured by several authors on mortars and concrete containing LWA
[4, 17, 2734] and on cement pastes and mortars with
SAP [4, 5]. All these measurements of autogenous deformation were linear and started around setting or after
1 day, depending on the measuring technique.

4. Secondary consequences of internal water

curing
4.1. Mechanical properties
Increased degree of hydration in concrete with internal water curing is expected to improve its mechanical
properties, especially at later ages. An additional beneficial effect on mechanical properties is obtained by
avoiding internal microcracking (Section 4.4), which

215

may occur in low water/binder concrete due to autogenous shrinkage.

Evaluation of the influence of internal water curing
on mechanical properties is complicated by the fact that
the internal curing agent is introduced in the system
and will influence its performance. As a consequence,
increasing the amount of the internal curing agent will
reduce the strength, counteracting the beneficial effects
of the further hydration promoted by internal water curing. Moreover, strength is also sensitive to the moisture
state of the specimens, with moist concrete showing
lower strength than partly dry concrete. Also the precompression of the aggregates, which might take place
in high strength concrete due to autogenous shrinkage
[35], plays a role in the strength of the concrete.
In addition, in LWAC a strength ceiling exists that
depends primarily on the strength of the LWA and is
independent of the matrix [36, 37]. On the other hand,
stress homogeneity in LWAC, due to similar elastic
modulus of aggregates and cement paste [36], might
reduce the occurrence of internal microcracking compared to concrete with normal aggregates.
Increase of compressive strength or flexural strength
in comparison with normal concrete, especially at later
age, was observed in concrete with LWA [15, 16, 38]
and in mortar with SAP or LWA [4]. In [15], addition
of pre-wetted LWA to the mix produced concrete with
compressive strength continuously increasing up to 1
year and insensitive to curing conditions. On the other
hand, in one study, moist LWA lowered the compressive
strength of LWAC compared to dry LWA [27], probably
because the w/c of the concrete was increased. In the
same study, elastic modulus of LWAC was not affected
by water content of the LWA.
4.2. Porosity and pore size distribution
Increased degree of hydration in internally water cured
concrete leads to a decrease of the porosity. Theoretically, a low w/c cement paste with sufficient internal
curing water may hydrate until all capillary pores are
filled with hydration products [14]. This will reduce the
total porosity of the cement paste and refine it: ideally,
only gel pores will remain in the cement paste.
Porosity and pore size distribution of internally
cured concrete may be measured by a number of techniques, for instance by water vapour sorption isotherms
or image analysis based on scanning electron microscopy. Measurements should preferably separate the

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porosity and pore size distribution of the internal curing

agent from those of the cement paste.
Porosity of the matrix in concrete containing LWA
was measured by helium pycnometry after crushing
of the concrete and removal of LWA, showing a decrease between 180 and 360 days [15]. On the same
mixes, mercury intrusion porosimetry performed on
pieces containing only sand grains and cement paste
showed refinement of the porosity in the same period.
Combined fluorescent microscopy, micro hardness measurements, and image analysis based on
backscattered-electron scanning microscopy [39, 40]
showed lower porosity and greater hardness of bulk
cement paste in samples containing saturated-surface
dry LWA compared to paste with normal aggregates
and plain cement paste.
4.3. Interfacial transition zone
Densification of the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) is
supposed to occur when internal water curing is performed with LWA. Water from the LWA will promote
local hydration of the ITZ, which will generally be
denser compared to concrete with normal aggregates.
Scanning electron microscopy and energydispersive X-ray analysis have shown that cement
paste penetrates in the outer porous layer of the
LWA particles, contributing to a paste-aggregate
bond stronger than with normal weight aggregates
[4143]. In particular, a dense and homogeneous
ITZ for LWA with a porous outer rim was observed,
while for LWA with a dense outer layer the ITZ was
similar to the case of normal weight aggregates [44].
Internal water curing ensures water saturation of the
concrete and promotes the pozzolanic reaction at the
interface between LWA and paste, which may further
contribute to strengthen the bond [45, 46]. Kato et al.
[39, 40] used fluorescent microscopy, microhardness
measurements, and scanning electron microscope
image analysis to study internally cured samples with
wet LWA and samples with no internal water curing.
Lower porosity and greater hardness were measured
in a 100 m-wide region around the saturated LWA
(Fig. 4). Indirect evidence of the existence of good
bond between LWA and cement paste is shown by
the fact that cracks generally propagate through
aggregates instead of along their rim as would be the
case with normal aggregates. An example of this is
shown in [47], where through-aggregate cracking was

Materials and Structures (2007) 40:211220

observed by light microscopy on epoxy-impregnated

samples subjected to severe drying.
Improvement of ITZ when using LWA is a highly
debated subject, and there have been also observation
of poor ITZ attributed to air escape from dry LWA [48]
or to insufficient water content of the LWA [17].
4.4. Self-induced stress and cracking
If autogenous shrinkage of a cement paste is reduced,
self-induced stresses produced by restrained deformation will also decrease. Both the global stress acting on
a concrete structure and the local stress at the pasteaggregate interface will be affected. A direct consequence of this is the reduced probability of macroscopic
concrete cracking; moreover, the likelihood of internal
microcracking will also be reduced [47].
Additionally, in LWAC the elastic modulus of the
concrete will generally be lower due to the LWA
and this will concur to reduce the global self-induced
stresses. Moreover, the low modulus of the LWA will
also contribute to reduce the local stresses at the
paste-aggregate interface and the probability of internal
cracking [36, 47]. Fluorescent microscopy and microhardness measurements in the ITZ, already addressed
in Section 4.3, may also be used to reveal reduction
of interface microcracking in internally cured samples
with LWA [40].
Many authors have measured self-induced stresses
of concrete mixes containing LWA, mostly using linear
stress rigs [17, 29, 30, 32]. In all cases, the self-induced
tensile stresses were lower than in the reference concretes without internal water curing and the likelihood
of early-age cracking was reduced; in some cases, compressive stresses were measured at early age. Jensen
and Hansen [5] observed self-induced stress reduction
in mortars with SAP by measuring equivalent hydrostatic pressure in an annular shrinkage gauge (ring test).
Mortars with SAP did not crack while the reference mix
did.
Direct measurements of the self-induced stress at
the paste-aggregate interface can be performed with a
stress sensor [35], whose application to concrete with
internal water curing is straightforward.
According to Sellevold and Bjntegaard [49], a
higher internal relative humidity in concrete with internal water curing would reduce the thermal expansion coefficient, thereby reducing stress development in structures subjected to real, i.e. semiadiabatic,

Materials and Structures (2007) 40:211220

217

Fig. 4 Fluorescence microscope images of interfacial transition zone between cement paste and normal weight aggregate (left) and
saturated LWA (right) [40]. The darker interfacial transition zone in the right picture indicates lower porosity and thus better bond

temperature regimes. However, evaluation of this stress

reduction is complicated by the superposition of autogenous and temperature-related deformations, and can
hardly be used as an indication of the effectiveness of
internal curing.

4.5. Durability
A number of observations of the good durability of
LWAC in extreme environmental conditions may be attributed at least in part to the beneficial effect of internal
water curing. On the other hand, long-term observations of the durability of internally-cured high performance concrete with either LWA or SAP are not available because of the novelty of the technique. Many of
the aspects discussed in the previous sections may potentially contribute to enhanced durability of concrete
with internal water curing: in particular high degree of
hydration, low porosity, reduced internal stresses, less
cracking, and densification of the ITZ.
A reduction in permeability and diffusivity may be
expected in internally water cured concrete, especially
at later age, due to depercolation of capillary pores in
the cement paste (Section 4.2). However, an additional
pore system is introduced into the concrete with the two
available techniques for internal water curing, SAP and
LWA. Mathematically, it is possible to prove that inclusion of a discontinuous phase has a minor influence on
the diffusion properties of a material [50]. As a general
remark, permeability and diffusivity of LWAC appear
to be controlled more by the quality of the matrix than

by the LWA [37], but the influence of internal water

curing on permeability and diffusivity is not fully clarified.
With regard to freeze-thaw durability, an advantage
of concrete with fine LWA might be the presence of
a well-dispersed pore system, which may assist the
air-entrainment pore system [51]. In laboratory freezethaw testing programs, LWAC performed equal to or
better than normal weight concrete [51, 52]. For this
particular purpose, SAP may be an even better option:
the pore system introduced with SAP for the scope of
internal water curing can be designed to work also as
an air entrainment system when the pores have been
emptied [5].
Cores taken from the U.S.S. Selma, a 70-year-old
LWAC ship, and from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in
Virginia [53] have demonstrated concretes with high
integrity contact zone between aggregates and matrix.
Figure 5 shows a LWAC ship passing under a LWAC
bridge during World War II. These examples illustrate
early applications of LWAC in extreme environmental
conditions that have demonstrated a surprisingly good
performance over time.

5. Final remarks
This paper provided an overview of evidences of internal water curing and experimental methods to study
them. In almost all cases, the experimental techniques
reported or suggested are well established in concrete
material science and only minor adaptations or special

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Materials and Structures (2007) 40:211220

Fig. 5 Ship with hull made

of lightweight concrete
passing under lightweight
concrete bridge deck during
World War II [53]

care are needed to extend their area of application to

internal water cured concrete.
It is believed that a more quantitative foundation of
the internal water curing concept should be pursued
through the application of scientifically-sound investigation techniques. This will promote the acceptance
and spread the use of internal water curing in concrete
practice.
Acknowledgements This paper was prepared for the RILEM
Technical Committee TC 196-ICC, Internal Curing of Concrete. The authors thank Prof. Konstantin Kovler (chair of TC
196-ICC), Mr. Dale Bentz, and Prof. Erik Sellevold for their
suggestions and insightful comments and Mr. Thomas Holm for
providing the picture shown in Fig. 5.

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