Journal of Building Engineering 4 (2015) 94100

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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:
Received 28 March 2015
Received in revised form
3 September 2015
Accepted 3 September 2015
Available online 8 September 2015

The effect of water/cement (w/c) ratio on the mechanical properties such as compressive strength and
split tensile strength of cement mortar cylinders and cubes was investigated experimentally for 28 days
curing period as per IS standard. Based upon the experimental results, empirical equations have been
developed to predict the strength of cement mortar mixes with various w/c ratios. It is observed that
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
ratios. An empirical equation has been developed between split tensile strength and compressive
strength of cement mortar. Results show that compressive strength and split tensile strength of cement
mortar decreased with an increase in the w/c ratio. It is observed that minimum w/c ratio required to
make the cement mortar workable is 0.5.
& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Abrams law
Cement mortar
Compressive strength
Split tensile strength
Water/cement ratio (w/c)

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 insufcient water content incurs a poor workability.
Hence, a method for determining the optimum water content and
inuence 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 inuence
of w/c ratio for mortar strength.
Haach et al. [1] investigated the inuence 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 inuence of w/c ratio and
cement content on the properties of polymer-modied 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 compressive strength of saturated specimen was 23% lower than that of
n

Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected],
[email protected] (S.B. Singh),
[email protected] (P. Munjal),
[email protected] (N. Thammishetti).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2015.09.003
2352-7102/& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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. Fineness modulus of sand also inuences the w/c ratio of the mortar.
Lim et al. [7] have stated that ner 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 ner sand when the
w/c ratio is lower. Study has also shown that inuence of sand
grading affects the properties of mortar [811]. By experimental
investigations, Authors [8] observed 5560% reduction in tensile
bond strength as neness 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 [1011].
In case of concrete, It has been shown that compressive
strength varies inversely with the w/c ratio through the Abrams
generalization law. The Abrams law developed for strength of
concrete is given below [12].

Strength =

K1
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 conrmed 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

S.B. Singh et al. / Journal of Building Engineering 4 (2015) 94100

Table 1
Physical properties of portland pozzolana cement
(PPC).
PPC properties

Test results

Blaine Fineness (m2/kg)

Specic Gravity
Normal Consistency (%)
Initial and Final setting time (min)
% Flyash addition
Soundness: Le-chat expansion (mm)

375
3.15
30.8
28 and 550
30
1.00

95

Table 3
Properties of ne aggregates (sand).
Properties

Values

Fineness modulus
Specic Gravity
Silt content (%)
Bulking of Sand (%)

3.5
2.42
2.5
22

2. Experimental details
2.1. Material and mix design

Table 2
Chemical properties of portland pozzolana cement (PPC).
Chemical composition

Percentage by mass

Calcium Oxide (CaO)

Silicon Dioxide (SiO2)
Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3)
Ferric Oxide (Fe2O3)
Alkalies (Na2O equivalent)
Magnesium Oxide (MgO)
Sulfur Trioxide (SO3)
Loss of Ignition (LOI)

43.50
30.60
10.05
4.32
0.56
1.01
1.95
2.80

Clinker Analysis
Tricalcium Silicate in clinker (C3S)
Dicalcium Silicate in clinker (C2S)
Tricalcium Aluminate in clinker (C3A)
Tetracalcium Aluminoferrite in clinker (C4AF)

48.5
24.5
7.8
14.3

mortar using w/c ratio based upon Abrams law and observed that
it is applicable to mortars with w/c ratio greater than 0.40. Generally, It has been observed that mechanical properties of the cement mortar are primarily affected by the w/c ratio, cement/sand
ratio, type of cementitious material, and properties of aggregate.
The objective of this paper is to determine the inuence of w/c
ratio on the cement mortars mechanical properties such as
compressive strength and split tensile strength and examine the
validity of the Abrams law for cement mortar. Moreover, empirical
equations are developed to predict the strength of cement mortar
for different proportions of w/c ratios.

An adequate number of cement mortar specimens with various

w/c ratios have been prepared to study its effect on the strength of
mortar. Portland pozzolana cement (PPC) as a binder and local
river sand for the ne aggregate were used to prepare the mortar
specimens. Portland pozzolana cement is ordinary portland cement blended or interground with pozzolanic materials such as y
ash, calcined clay, rice husk ash, etc. Tables 1 and 2 depict the
physical and chemical properties of cement. The ne aggregates
passing through 4.75 mm sieve has been used and its particle size
distribution is given in Fig. 1. The material properties of ne aggregate is given in Table 3. In this work, ve mixes of cement: sand
proportions (1:3, 1:4, 1:5, 1:6 and 1:7) with different w/c ratio
varying from 0.5 to 1.2 were prepared by weight batching. The
cement mortar mix were prepared in the Hobart mixer for 2
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
was spread on the interiors of the moulds using a clean brush and
then a paste of cement mortar was poured into the mould. Excess
mortar was struck off with a metallic trowel across the top of the
mould. The mould was then placed on the vibrating table and
vibrated for 2 min at a speed of 12,000 7400 per minute to
achieve full compaction. Specimens were left in the mould inside
the moist room (temperature 277 2 C and relative humidity 65%
75) for a period of 24 h. The specimens were removed from the
mould and placed inside the curing tank at temperature of
27 72 C for 28 days.

Fig. 1. Particle size distribution curve of sand.

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S.B. Singh et al. / Journal of Building Engineering 4 (2015) 94100

Table 4
Compressive strengths of cube and cylinder specimens from experimental and
analytical predicted.
Cement: w/c Cube
Sand
comp.
strength
rC28, exp
(MPa)

% COV rC28,

1:3

5.25
2.69
1.98
3.65
4.65
6.89
2.65
4.95
5.68
2.61
1.98
4.87
1.88
5.65
5.89
4.98
4.54
3.51
2.68
1.98
4.58
5.69
6.35
5.87
1.78
3.65
4.98
5.68
6.45
5.85
4.15
3.85
5.54
3.65
2.89
5.14

1:4

1:5

1:6

1:7

0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
1.1
1.2
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
1.1
1.2
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
1.1
1.2
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
1.1
1.2
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
1.1
1.2

22.46
22.99
20.85
19.94
18.75
17.20
16.89
15.36
19.34
20.91
18.69
16.79
15.74
14.16
13.78
13.15
15.44
13.82
12.66
11.78
10.89
9.46
8.76
9.46
10.76
8.75
7.16
6.16
5.35
4.99
5.75
6.03
5.13
4.47
3.56
3.11

Eq

(MPa)
Eq. (4)

24.02
22.02
20.53
19.32
18.31
17.46
16.72
16.07
21.29
19.31
17.78
16.55
15.54
14.68
13.95
13.32
16.05
14.13
12.66
11.49
10.53
9.73
9.06
11.07
9.32
8.03
7.04
6.26
5.62
5.10
6.51
5.51
4.76
4.17
3.71
3.32

% Difference (rC28,
rC28,
Eq
exp)

6.49
4.41
1.56
3.21
2.40
1.49
1.02
4.42
9.16
8.29
5.12
1.45
1.29
3.54
1.22
1.28
3.80
2.19
0.00
2.52
3.42
2.77
3.31
14.54
15.45
8.97
1.70
1.60
4.80
2.16
11.64
9.44
7.77
7.19
4.04
6.33

Cylinder
comp.
strength,
exp.
(MPa)

% COV

18.42
19.31
17.72
16.75
15.94
14.45
13.85
13.06
15.86
17.36
16.26
14.94
13.38
12.46
11.99
11.31
12.66
12.16
11.01
10.25
9.15
8.32
7.88
8.51
9.25
7.70
6.23
5.48
4.60
4.34
5.00
5.37
4.36
4.02
3.03
2.71

6.54
5.12
4.89
7.58
4.98
5.68
8.45
7.65
8.65
6.32
6.79
7.65
9.54
8.75
9.15
9.54
8.75
9.65
7.68
5.98
6.82
8.54
6.98
6.35
7.45
8.65
9.65
8.45
7.25
6.78
8.97
9.54
5.65
7.89
8.54
7.85

Fig. 3. Typical specimen failure under compressive strength test of cement mortar.

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

Fig. 2. Bulging of specimen during compressive strength test of cement mortar.

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

and water cement ratio.

S.B. Singh et al. / Journal of Building Engineering 4 (2015) 94100

97

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

Table 5
Values of strength parameters.
Cement:
Sand

n1

1:3
1:4
1:5
1:6
1:7

17.46
14.68
10.53
6.26
4.17

n2

0.46
0.54
0.83
1.12
1.25

Regression
coefcient

0.93
0.90
0.93
0.90
0.89

6.39
6.48
7.99
6.69
4.90

11.16
8.30
2.60
0.31
0.67

Regression
coefcient

n3

0.88
0.84
9.00
0.83
0.86

1.32
1.04
0.85
0.72
0.52

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 25 N/mm2 per
minute until failure occurs. The compressive strength was calculated 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, inuence of bondstrength is what
makes the study of tensile strength more signicant. 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.

fct

2P
=
dl

(2)

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

n4

0.54
0.73
0.64
0.68
0.94

Regression
coefcient

Regression
coefcient

0.91
0.88
0.86
0.89
0.87

0.61
0.64
0.59
0.43
0.45

0.72
0.43
0.33
0.29
0.07

0.86
0.82
0.81
0.84
0.83

two purposes: rstly amount of water required to hydrate the

cement and second to lubricate the sand particle, based on its
specic 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 aggregate 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 0.080.11 based upon the specic surface of sand (3.28.2 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 13 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 approximately 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
The results of compressive strength of cube and cylindrical
specimens with coefcient 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 sufcient for proper hydration process resulting into low strength. However, subsequent

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S.B. Singh et al. / Journal of Building Engineering 4 (2015) 94100

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

w/c Cylinder split tensile % COV fct28, Eq

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

1:3

0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
1.1
1.2
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
1.1
1.2
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
1.1
1.2
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
1.1
1.2
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
1.1
1.2

1:4

1:5

1:6

1:7

1.78
1.93
1.49
1.45
1.36
1.30
1.26
1.22
1.52
1.57
1.50
1.35
1.15
0.98
0.93
0.90
1.19
1.24
1.06
1.02
0.95
0.90
0.85
0.93
1.01
0.87
0.76
0.72
0.70
0.68
0.65
0.69
0.61
0.55
0.46
0.41

4.85
3.12
2.11
3.12
5.68
5.85
3.54
5.98
6.85
3.52
2.75
5.45
2.65
6.89
7.12
6.98
6.54
4.65
3.24
2.57
5.25
6.98
7.65
6.23
2.92
4.19
5.85
6.95
5.48
4.87
3.65
4.19
5.67
3.47
5.87
6.47

% Difference

1.92
1.74
1.60
1.49
1.40
1.32
1.26
1.20
1.73
1.51
1.35
1.23
1.13
1.04
0.97
0.91
1.19
1.08
0.99
0.91
0.85
0.80
0.76
1.02
0.92
0.84
0.77
0.72
0.68
0.64
0.73
0.64
0.57
0.52
0.47
0.44

7.29
10.92
6.88
2.68
2.86
1.52
0.00
1.67
12.14
3.97
11.11
9.76
1.77
5.77
4.12
1.10
0.00
14.81
7.07
12.09
11.76
12.50
11.84
8.82
9.78
3.57
1.30
0.00
2.94
6.25
10.96
7.81
7.02
5.77
2.13
6.82

Fig. 8. Failure pattern of cylindrical specimen during split tensile strength.

ratio is greater than 0.40. Results show that compressive strength

of cement mortar with a varying w/c ratio follow the Abrams Law.
Rao [14] has developed a general formula relating strength to w/c
ratio of the mortar proportions of 1:2, 1:2.5, 1:3. In this paper, a
more general expression for all the ve mortar mixes i.e. 1:3, 1:4,
1:5, 1:6 and 1:7 are evaluated. The experimental results of compressive strength of cube specimens with w/c ratio of the all ve
mortars at the age of 28 days are shown in Fig. 5.
Generalized correlation has been derived as shown in Fig. 6 to
predict the 28-day compressive strength of cement mortar for all
the ve mix groups as a function of w/c ratio using regression
analysis. In general, relationship between the 28 days compressive
strength and w/c ratio of cube specimens of cement mortar for
various cement sand ratio is given by Eq. (4).

c = n1(w /c )n2

(4)

where parameters n1 and n2 are given in Table 5.

Based on the above equation, design strength of mortar for any
practical purpose could be calculated. The difference between the
results from above equation and experimental is less than 15% as
shown in Table 4.
Bolomeys Eq. (5) has been used for relating the cement/water
ratio to compressive strengths of concrete [19]. A, B are the constants depending on the material properties. In the present paper,
parameters A and B are evaluated in the Table 5 for all the ve
mortar mixes (1:3, 1:4, 1:5, 1:6 and 1:7) of cube specimens.

fct =

A
+B
(w /c )

(5)

4.2. Split tensile strength

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. 24. 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.
Abrams Law [14] is valid for high strength mortar when w/c

The results of split tensile strength of cement mortar is presented in Table 6 with coefcient 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 28day Split tensile strength data is presented in Fig. 9. It is shown
that with increase in water content, the split tensile strength decreases, 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 expression (Eq. (6)) has been derived (Fig. 10) to predict the split tensile
strength of cylinder specimens of cement mortar for various cement 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 ve

S.B. Singh et al. / Journal of Building Engineering 4 (2015) 94100

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.

99

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S.B. Singh et al. / Journal of Building Engineering 4 (2015) 94100

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 Table 5 for all the ve mortar mixes.

fct =

C
+D
(w /c )

References

(7)

From the above equations (Eqs. (6) and (7)) expressing relationships 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 experimental and predicted results (Eq. (6)) is less than 14% as presented 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 estimated using Eq. (8) as a function of compressive strength of
mortar. The regression coefcient is 0.97 for Eq. (8).

fct = 0.21 (c ) 0.66

Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi (Grant#

SR/S3/MERC/051/2012) and Aditya Birla Group.

(8)

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 proportions. The inuence 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 optimum 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 parameters. 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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