Permeability

In concrete, the role of water has to be seen in a proper perspective because, as a necessary
ingredient for the cement hydration reactions and as an agent that facilitates the mixing of the
components of concrete, water is present from the beginning. Gradually, depending on the
ambient conditions and the thickness of a concrete element, most of the evaporable water in
concrete (all the capillary water and a part of the adsorbed water) is lost, leaving the pores empty
or unsaturated. As it is the evaporable water that is freezable and also free for internal movement,
a concrete will not be vulnerable to water-related destructive phenomena if there is a little or no
evaporable water left after drying, and if subsequent exposure of that concrete to the
environment does not cause resaturation of the pores.
The latter, to a large extent, depends on the hydraulic conductivity, which is also known
as the coefficient of permeability (K). Note that, in concrete technology, it is a common practice
to drop the adjective and refer to K simply as the permeability.
Permeability is defined as the property that governs the rate of flow of a fluid into a
porous solid. For steady-state flow, the coefficient of permeability (K) is determined from
Darcys expression:

The coefficient of permeability of a concrete to gases and water vapor is much lower than the
coefficient for liquid water; therefore, tests for measurement of permeability are generally
carried out using water that has no dissolved air. Due to their interaction with cement paste, the
permeability values for solutions containing ions would be different from the water permeability.
Permeability of hardened cement paste
In hardened cement paste, at any point in time during the hydration process the size and
continuity of the pores would control the coefficient of permeability. The mixing water is
indirectly responsible for the permeability of hydrated cement paste because its content
determines, first, the total space and, subsequently, the unfilled space after the water has been
consumed either by cement hydration reactions or by evaporation to the environment. The
coefficient of permeability of freshly mixed cement paste is of the order of 104 to 105 cm/s;
with the progress of hydration, as the capillary porosity decreases, so does the coefficient of
permeability (Table 1), but there is no direct proportionality between the two. For instance, when
the capillary porosity decreases from 40 to 30 percent (Fig.1), the coefficient of permeability
drops by a much greater amount (i.e., from about 110 to 20 1012 cm/s).
However, a further decrease in the porosity from 30 to 20 percent brings about only a
small drop in permeability. This is because, in the beginning, as the cement hydration process
progresses, even a small decrease in the total capillary porosity is associated with considerable
segmentation of large pores, thus greatly reducing the size and number of channels of flow in the
cement paste. Typically, about 30 percent capillary porosity represent a point when the
interconnections between the pores have already become so tortuous that a further decrease in
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the porosity of the paste is not accompanied by a substantial decrease in the permeability
coefficient.
In general, when the water-cement ratio is high and the degree of hydration is low, the
cement paste will have a high capillary porosity. It will contain a relatively large number of big
and well-connected pores and, therefore, its coefficient of permeability will be high. As
hydration progresses, most of the pores will be reduced in size (e.g., 100 nm or less) and will
lose their interconnections and the permeability will drop. The coefficient of permeability of
cement paste when most of the capillary voids are small and not interconnected is of the order of
10 12 cm/s.
As stated, with conventional cement pastes the discontinuity in the capillary network is
generally reached when the capillary porosity is about 30 percent. With 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, and 0.7
water-cement ratio cement pastes this generally happens in 3, 14, 180, and 365 days of moist
curing, respectively. As the water-cement ratio in most concrete mixtures seldom exceeds 0.7,
theoretically, with most well-cured concrete mixtures, cement paste should not be the principal
contributing factor to the coefficient of permeability of concrete.
Table-1

Permeability of aggregate
Compared to 30 to 40 percent capillary porosity of ordinary cement paste present in hardened
concrete, the volume of pores in most natural aggregates is usually under 3 percent and rarely
exceeds 10 percent. It is expected, therefore, that the permeability of aggregate would be much
lower than that of the typical cement paste. However, this may not necessarily be the case. From
the permeability data of some natural rocks and cement pastes (Table 2), the coefficient of
permeability of aggregates are as variable as those of hydrated cement pastes of water-cement
ratios in the range 0.38 to 0.71. Although the coefficient of permeability of marble, trap rock,
diorite, basalt, and dense granite is generally of the order of 1 to 10 1012 cm/s, some varieties
of granite, limestone, sandstones, and cherts show values that are higher by two orders of
magnitude. The reason why some aggregates with only 10 percent porosity show much higher
permeability than the cement paste is that the size of capillary pores in aggregate is usually much
larger. Most of the capillaryporosity in a mature cement paste lies in the 10 to 100 nm range,
whereas the pore sizes in aggregate are, on the average, larger than 10 m. With some cherts and
limestone the pore size distribution involves a considerable content of fine pores. Their
permeability may be low, but such aggregates are vulnerable to expansion and cracking
associated with sluggish moisture movements and the resulting hydrostatic pressure.
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Permeability of concrete
Theoretically, the introduction of low-permeability aggregate particles into a high-permeability
cement paste (especially with high water-cement ratio pastes at early ages when the capillary
porosity is high) is expected to reduce the permeability of the system because the aggregate
particles should intercept the channels of flow within the cement paste matrix. Compared to a
neat cement paste, therefore, a mortar or a concrete with the same water-cement ratio and degree
of maturity should give a lower coefficient of permeability. Test data indicate that, in practice,
this does not happen. The two sets of data * in Fig. 2 clearly show that the addition of aggregate
to a cement paste or a mortar increased the permeability considerably; in fact, the larger the
aggregate size, the greater the coefficient of permeability. Typically, the permeability
coefficients for moderate- strength concrete (containing 38 mm aggregate, 356 kg/m3 cement,
and an 0.5 water-cement ratio), and low-strength concrete used in dams (75 to 150 mm
aggregate, 148 kg/m3 cement, and an 0.75 water-cement ratio) are of the order of 1 1010 and
30 1010 cm/s, respectively.
Why the permeability of mortar or concrete is higher than the permeability of the
corresponding cement paste?
The explanation as to why the permeability of mortar or concrete is higher than the
permeability of the corresponding cement paste lies in the microcracks normally present
in the interfacial transition zone between aggregate and the cement paste.
The aggregate size and grading affect the bleeding characteristic of a concrete mixture
that, in turn, influences the interfacial transition zone.
During the early hydration period the interfacial transition zone is weak and vulnerable to
cracking from differential strains between the cement paste and the aggregate particles
that are induced by drying shrinkage, thermal shrinkage, and externally applied load.
The cracks in the interfacial transition zone are too small to be seen by the naked eye, but
are larger than most capillary cavities present in the cement paste matrix.
Later, the propagation of microcracks establishes the interconnections that become
instrumental in increasing the permeability of the system.
Due to the significance of the permeability to physical and chemical processes of
deterioration of concrete, a brief review of the factor controlling the permeability of
concrete should be useful.
Because strength and permeability are related to each other through the capillary porosity
(Fig.3), as a first approximation the factors that influence the strength of concrete (Fig.4) also
influence the permeability.
A reduction in the volume of large (e.g., >100 nm) capillary voids in the paste matrix
will reduce the permeability. This should be possible by using a low water-cement ratio,
adequate cement content, and proper compaction and curing.
Similarly, proper attention to the aggregate size and grading, thermal and drying
shrinkage strains, and premature or excessive loading are necessary steps to reduce micro
cracking in the interfacial transition zone, which is the major cause of high permeability of
concrete infield practice. Finally, it should also be noted that tortuosity of the path of fluid flow
that determines the permeability also depends on the thickness of the concrete member. The
permeability coefficient in SI units is expressed as kg/Pa.m.s, which is an approximately 103
time smaller than the coefficient expressed in cm/s.

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Figure-3
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Figure-4

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