Abstract
Capillary imbibition or water uptake tests are practical and they satisfactorily describe the performance of cementitious materials. Most of these tests are performed for a short period (<1 week), however, additional water uptake has been documented after the water front has covered the total height of samples. This process occurs at a very low rate and it could provide further information about the pore structure. We investigated long-term capillary imbibition in mortar and concrete with and without supplementary cementitious materials. This paper reports our results and results from literature, and proposes a phenomenological description of the process. The trends observed from long-term tests are consistent across different water to cementitious material ratios, binder types, fine and coarse aggregates, curing ages, and conditioning regimes. Long-term measurements reveal primary and secondary periods of capillary imbibition that are well described by a bi-linear relationship with the fourth root of time.
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