Construction and Building Materials 281 (2021) 122626

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Construction and Building Materials

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

Effect of temperature and relative humidity on the development

of the compressive strength of surface-layer cement mortar
Bochao Sun a,b, Takafumi Noguchi b, Gaochuang Cai c,⇑, Weijian Zhao a
a
College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, PR China
b
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
c
Univ Lyon, Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Saint-Etienne (ENISE), Laboratoire de Tribologie et de Dynamique des Systèmes (LTDS), UMR 5513, 58 Rue Jean Parot,
42023 Saint-Etienne Cedex 2, France; Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka, Japan

h i g h l i g h t s

Provided a detailed record about temperature and relative humidity development with time at surface-layer concrete.

Verified and explained the quality of surface-layer concrete is lower than the center due to inadequate T and HR.

Investigated the effect of three curing methods on the surface concrete.

Proposed a modified maturity method considering the coupling effect of T and HR, which presents good evaluation accuracy.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The ambient condition has a significant effect on the early strength of cement mortar, however, good cur-
Received 12 October 2020 ing treatment could improve the quality of surface-layer mortar. To further quantifiably study the effect,
Received in revised form 3 February 2021 the temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) histories in the surface layer of outdoor curing cement
Accepted 4 February 2021
mortars were recorded by embedded sensors in the study. The compressive strength of mortar specimens
Available online 20 February 2021
under three curing conditions and the specimens drilled from mortar slabs with three surface curing
techniques were tested. Based on the study, the current maturity formula considering only the effect
Keywords:
of curing temperature overestimated the compressive strength of the surface-layer cement mortars.
Temperature
Relative humidity
Through a proposed RH-modified maturity method, the strength of the mortars was predicted with a high
Coupling effect accuracy comparing with the test results. The surface curing techniques were proved to have a significant
Surface-layer strength effect on the strength development of the mortars, especially the surface layer. The significances of the
Strength prediction study were to quantifiably analyze the combined effect of T and HR on the surface layer of mortar slab
Modified maturity method for it was susceptible to the curing environment that subsequently affects the hydration action and
the microstructure of the mortar, and to modify the predict the strength of the mortars considering
the combined effects.
Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The property of the surface layer of concrete is considered
immensely important to ensure the quality and durability of con-
crete structures. Before the initial setting of cement mix, the pre-
cipitation of aggregate triggers air bubbles and water to exist
under the steel and coarse aggregate or to migrate to the surface
layer of concrete. The excessive evaporation of water leads to the
system lucks sufficient water for cement hydration reaction on
the concrete surface, resulting in the degradation of mechanical
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: gaochuang.cai@enise.fr (G. Cai).
and durability properties. At the same time, the surface layer usu-
ally is subjected to tensile stress due to the drying shrinkage of
concrete, which causes premature cracks [1–3]. Furthermore, from
the standpoint of concrete durability, the surface-layer concrete
carbonates in the air, reducing the alkalinity of concrete further
affecting the protection of steel bars in concrete [4]. Until now,
most of the studies on surface-layer concrete mainly focused on
the carbonization [4–6], moisture transfer [7,8], permeability [9],
and cracking behaviors of concrete [3]. Although a number of stud-
ies tried to solve these problems from the point of view of mixing
admixtures and chemical agents [10,11], the improvement of cur-
ing quality can also effectively enhance the performance of the
concrete surface layer.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.122626
0950-0618/Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
B. Sun, T. Noguchi, G. Cai et al.
At the early stage of hardening, due to the influence of environ-
mental temperature and relative humidity, the internal strength of
concrete gradually develops as per a gradient distribution [12,13].
The surface layer of concrete shows a weakness in strength devel-
opment. This can be attributed to that the environmental temper-
ature and relative humidity significantly influence the hydration
process of cementitious materials [14,15]. Fig. 1 illustrates a sche-
matic diagram of the relationship between cement hydration
degree, temperature, and relative humidity over time. In an adia-
batic condition, the heat release of cement hydration reaction
dominated the internal temperature variation inside the concrete.
The influence of temperature on the development of concrete
strength can be conveyed by the maturity concept, which means
that a higher the accumulated temperature could develop a higher
strength at a certain time [16]. The decrease of relative humidity
inside concrete involves two parts: the evaporation of water from
the surface and the water consumption for cement hydration reac-
tion. The amount of water consumed by cement hydration is much
less than that consumed by evaporation. The literature showed
that cement particles discontinue their hydration when the rela-
tive humidity is below 80%, which directly results in the stopping
in the strength developing correspondingly [17,18]. Since the
hydration degree of cement can determine the concrete strength,
they have a similar development trend over time. Therefore, the
cement hydration process, namely the strength growth process,
is seriously affected by both temperature and humidity conditions
[19,20].
The surface layer of concrete usually is highly susceptible to
crack for various mechanisms that is one of the main reasons for
the early damage of concrete. Among these carking mechanisms,
the critical one is inadequate curing which then significantly
affects the insufficient early strength of concrete [21,22]. To avoid
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the relationship between cement hydration degree,
concrete internal temperature and relative humidity over time.
2
Construction and Building Materials 281 (2021) 122626
the excessive loss of moisture from the exposed concrete surface
during curing, different techniques are often used in practical pro-
jects such as water retention covering. Appropriate temperature,
sufficient humidity and curing time can provide the concrete a
basis for excellent strength and durability of concrete. Shoukry
et al. [23] and Sun et al. [24]have illustrated that the temperature
and relative humidity of the curing environment affect the
strength development of concrete. Moreover, several methods con-
sidering the coupling effect of relative temperature and humidity
on strength have been proposed [25–27]. Although existing studies
have shown the importance of surface concrete, however, there
was limited research on how environmental conditions affect the
temperature and relative humidity of surface concrete. Especially
when the concrete is in the outdoor environment with varying
temperature and relative humidity, the progress of temperature
and humidity of the concrete surface layer and the development
of mechanical properties are still unclear.
In order to study the influence of outdoor environment temper-
ature and relative humidity on the development of mechanical
properties of surface-layer concrete, the following tests were car-
ried out on different sizes of cement mortar specimens. Firstly,
about the small-scale testing of 50 mm diameter and 100 mm
height cylindrical mortar specimens exposed in an outdoor curing,
the temperature and relative humidity at the depth of 10 mm,
20 mm and 40 mm from the surface were monitored. Meanwhile,
the influence of outdoor humidity on the development of the com-
pressive strength of the mortars under different curing conditions
was studied. Secondly, several large-scale mortar slab specimens
were cast and cured with different surface treatment methods.
The temperature and relative humidity at the depth of 10 mm,
20 mm and 40 mm from the surface were also recorded. The com-
pressive strength of core specimens was also studied, by drilling
out from the slabs and cutting into 50 mm diameter and 60 mm
height cylindrical specimens at the surface layer. Finally, a
humidity-modified maturity method was proposed and verified
to the testing compressive strength, by combining the temperature
and humidity effect.
2. Experimental program
2.1. Materials and mix design
The experimental analysis of this study was performed by
investigating a series of cement mortar cylindrical specimens and
slab specimens. The ordinary Portland cement (OPC) with a density
of 3.16 g/cm2 and a specific surface area of 3230 cm2/g conforming
to the requirements of the standard of JIS R 5210, was utilized for
all specimens. The natural river sand with a diameter below 5 mm
and a surface dried density of 2.58 g/cm3 was used as fine aggregate
for the mortar slabs. The mixing with a water-to-cement ratio of
0.53 and a cement-to-sand ratio of 0.41 was applied for the exper-
iment, whose detailed mixing proportion is listed in Table 1.
2.2. Experimental procedures
2.2.1. Specimen size and sensor setting
The experiments in this study were carried out in two different
sizes of specimens, 50 mm diameter and 100 mm height cylindrical
specimens and 1000 mm  500 mm  200 mm slab specimens. As
shown in Fig. 2 (a), the cylindrical specimens were conducted and
Table 1
Mixing proportion of cement mortar (unit: kg/cm3).
Cement (C) Water(W) Fine aggregate(S) W/C C/S
547 290 1334 0.53 0.41
B. Sun, T. Noguchi, G. Cai et al.
Fig. 2. Size of experimental specimen.
tested in two different ways, for monitoring internal temperature
and relative humidity(T/RH) and studying their compressive
strength. Three specimens were prepared for the T/RH collection
with the depth of 10 mm, 20 mm and 40 mm from the top surface,
and the side and bottom surface were sealed to prevent moisture
loss. The dimensions of the slab specimens and the location of
the sensors are shown in Fig. 2 (b). The slab specimens were con-
structed in a mould with wooden plates on the sides and a plastic
plate at the bottom. Four thermal insulation materials (boards)
were attached to the internal surface with the wooden mould to
prevent heat transferring and moisture loss from the side surface.
The bottom mould was placed with a temperature sensor whose
probe can directly contact the bottom surface of the mortar slab.
The specimens were placed on a timber formwork with a height
of about 400 mm away from the ground to avoid the heat transfer
between the specimen bottom and the ground.
2.2.2. Curing methods
As shown in Fig. 2 (a), the cylindrical specimens for compressive
strength testing were cured under three different curing condi-
tions, including surface-exposed curing, air-exposed curing, and
water curing.
Surface-exposed curing: the top surface of cylindrical speci-
mens was exposed in the air and the other faces were sealed by
keeping the original mould board.
Air-exposed curing: the specimens were directly cured in the
outdoor environment after demoulding without any treatment.
Water curing: the specimens were fully immersed in water
after demoulding and cured the outdoor environment.
After casting, the specimens were surface sealed with cling
films and immediately moved to the outdoor environment. The
moulds were removed after 24 h of staying in the laboratory.
On the other hand, three different surface treatments were
adopted for slab specimens to study the influence of different out-
door humidity on the surface quality of mortar, including exposed
with non-treatment, chemical membrane covering and plastic
sheet covering.
Exposed: the surface of the slab specimens was directly exposed
to the air without any treatment.
Chemical membrane: A chemical curing agent was sprayed
onto the slab surface and smeared evenly with a trowel.
Plastic sheet covering: a plastic sheet was covered the top sur-
face of the slabs after casting.
The main composition of the used chemical curing agent was
Ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), which appears as an opalescent liq-
3
Construction and Building Materials 281 (2021) 122626
uid with a solid content of 54 ± 1% and a specific gravity of
1.06 ± 0.05. Fig. 3(b) shows the troweling of the chemical curing
agent on the slab and three different surface treatments of the
mortar slab after casting for 24 h. The specimens were placed in
an outdoor environment and prevented from getting caught in
the rain. Two identical specimens are manufactured for each treat-
ment method, one was for continuous sensor data collection and
another was for coring the samples for strength testing.
2.2.3. Temperature and relative humidity data collection
Two types of capacitive sensors, SHT75 temperature and rela-
tive humidity sensor, and STS31 temperature sensor, were applied
in this study. The SNH75 sensor was used to measure the temper-
ature and humidity development inside the concrete and in the
environment, and the STS31 sensor was embedded onto the bot-
tom mould to obtain the bottom temperature of the slab. The sen-
sors used inside mortar were essential to be waterproofed to
protect the capacitive elements from erosion. The schematic dia-
gram of waterproof treatment is shown in Fig. 3 (a). The sensor
probe was wrapped and sealed with a plastic pipe with a diameter
of about 5 mm, the waterproof breathable fabric was set and sealed
on the top of the plastic pipe with a strong adhesive. As the sensor
was placed in the cavity of a plastic pipe, there was a short period
of relative humidity rise after the initial stage of the experiment.
This study modified this by taking the initial humidity rising stage
as the humidity saturation state (RH = 100%). The function of
waterproof breathable fabric is to allow the entry of gas but not liq-
uid, consequently, the sensor inside the pipe can avoid failure due
to the potential corrosion by the alkaline pore solution of the mor-
tar. The plastic mould at the bottom of the slab specimen is a spe-
cially developed smart formwork system embedded with an STS31
temperature sensor to record the temperature history at the bot-
tom side of the slab specimen, as shown in Fig. 2(a). The sampling
frequency of the sensors was set as 15 times per hour and the col-
lected data was sent to the computer via a data logger.
2.2.4. Coring and compressive strength test
The standard compressive strength testing was performed on
the cylindrical specimens at curing age of 1,3,7, and 28 days. To
obtain the surface layer strength of the mortar slab, the operation
of coring is necessary. Fig. 3 (c) shows the position of coring and
the size of the specimens. In this study, the core with a size of
50 mm diameter and 200 mm height obtained through drilling
was cut into a size of 50 mm diameter and 60 mm height near
the surface layer, then it was retained for compressive strength
B. Sun, T. Noguchi, G. Cai et al.
Fig. 3. Detailed demonstration of the experiment procedure.
testing. The compressive strength testing is the 3,7,14 and 35 days
after casting. Three specimens were cored for each testing age and
the average strength of the three specimens was adopted. To
reduce the impact of holes on subsequent tests, the coring posi-
tions should be dispersed as far as possible. In this study, the dis-
tance of each coring position was more than 100 mm, as shown
in Fig. 2 (c). According to the ASTM C42/C42M-13 [28], the mea-
sured compressive strength of cylindrical specimens with different
length-diameter ratios(l/d) needs to be multiplied by a reduction
coefficient k, which was taken as 0.93 (l/d = 1.2) in this study.
3. Experimental results and discussion
3.1. Influence of environmental relative humidity on cylindrical
specimens
Since small-scale cylinder specimens were utilized in the exper-
iment, the ambient temperature was rapidly assimilated the whole
4
Construction and Building Materials 281 (2021) 122626
specimens. Fig. 4 shows the temperature history of the environ-
ment and at each depth inside the specimens. The temperature
inside the specimens changed in correlation with the ambient tem-
perature, whereas the amplitude remains were nearly identical at
the same curing time.
The history of environmental and internal humidity is plotted in
Fig. 5. Results show that the ambient humidity has a significant
influence on the internal humidity of the cylinder specimens, and
the unsaturated humidity of the outdoor environment leads to
the evaporation of water from the specimen surface, thereby the
internal humidity values decrease over curing time regardless of
the depth of the measured locations. Although the development
tendency of the humidity was generally downward, the varying
environmental humidity in some periods made the internal
humidity rise occasionally. For example, there are three obvious
peaks of environmental humidity at 180, 440 and 660 h, the inter-
nal humidity at 10 mm depth and 20 mm depth also presented cor-
responding peaks locally. The humidity values at different depths
have different sensitivities to environmental humidity. The humid-
B. Sun, T. Noguchi, G. Cai et al. Construction and Building Materials 281 (2021) 122626

development. The growth of strength was significantly inhibited in

the unsaturated humidity curing conditions like air-exposed curing
and surface-exposed curing. In different construction sites or for
different concrete structures, different curing methods are com-
monly adopted to ensure the concrete structures were maintained
adequately. This implies that a strength development model con-
sidering environmental humidity is needed for the early-age qual-
ity management of concrete structures, which was ignored usually
in the current codes and standards.

3.2. Influence of three surface curing methods on the quality of the

surface layer of slab

Fig. 7 shows the overview of the recorded temperature history

of the ambient environment and of the inside core specimens at
the depths of 10 mm, 20 mm and 40 mm under different curing
conditions. It is notable that the experiments of two dimensions
of the specimens were performed at different periods, therefore,
Fig. 4. Temperature history of mortar cylinder. they have different ambient temperature and humidity. At the
stage of the initial 100 h after casting, although the ambient tem-
perature presented a continuous declining trend, the internal tem-
perature of the mortar slab at different depths increased initially
and then decreased sharply. This is due to the heat release of the
cement hydration reaction increasing the temperature inside the
mortar slabs. The internal temperatures of the mortar slabs
reached their peak values at about 16 h, which varied with the cur-
ing conditions. The highest temperature exceeded 50 °C and was
found in the specimens cured with plastic sheets preventing the
heat from releasing from the mortar slabs. A similar temperature
rise phenomenon at the initial stage has not been found obviously
in the cylindrical mortar test. This is mainly attributed to that the
mortar slabs are large scale and can release more heat during the
cement hydration process than the cylindrical specimens. Further-
more, the curing of the mortar slab was designed to prevent the
loss of temperature from the sides of the slabs, which also increase
the accumulation of heat inside the slabs.
The temperature of the specimens at varying depths under dif-
ferent curing conditions presents different peak values at around
15 h after casting of the slabs. In Fig. 7, the temperatures of spec-
imens cured with plastic sheets were relatively similar at the three
Fig. 5. Relative humidity history of mortar cylinder. depths. The peak values at the depths of 10 mm, 20 mm and
40 mm were 51.3 °C, 50.7 °C and 49.6 °C in the specimen, respec-
tively. The peak values of the temperature of slab cured with
ity at 10 mm-depth decreased rapidly and fluctuated apparently
with environmental humidity relatively sensitively, while the fluc-
tuation of the humidity at 40 mm depth was more stable.
The compressive strength of mortar cured by three different
methods presented different development at different test ages.
Therefore, the humidity of the curing environment significantly
affected the strength growth of cement mortar. As mentioned by
Wyrzykowski and Lura [17], an unsaturated relative humidity sub-
stantially reduced the reaction rate of cementitious materials dur-
ing their curing period. Accordingly, the compressive strength of
the specimens under-saturated relative humidity (water curing)
was much higher than those of the mortars under unsaturated rel-
ative humidity (exposed curing, surface-exposed curing). In
respect of the compressive strength of the mortar cured under
unsaturated relative humidity environments, for the exposed areas
of the surface-exposed specimens was smaller than those of air-
exposed specimens, the rate of water loss by evaporation from
the surface of the surface-exposed specimens was lower, leading
to a higher strength at the same curing time.
According to the compressive strength test results of cylindrical
specimens shown in Fig. 6, it can be found that the difference in
curing humidity conditions had a critical influence on the strength Fig. 6. Testing compressive strength of mortar cylinder with different curing mode.

5
B. Sun, T. Noguchi, G. Cai et al. Construction and Building Materials 281 (2021) 122626

Fig. 8. Temperature history of the bottom of the mortar slab.

the surface layer and internal temperatures is more likely to cause

cracking for mass concrete.
On the other hand, the history of the environmental and inter-
nal relative humidity of the mortar slabs is shown in Fig. 9. Fig. 9(a)
shows the development of environmental relative humidity gener-
ally varies within the range of 50%–90%RH during the test period.
According to the humidity data at different depths, three different
curing methods have an obvious influence on the inside relative
humidity of the chemical membrane and air-exposed cured mortar
slabs. This is similar to the results of the cylindrical specimen test,
i.e., the relative humidity at a deeper location decreased more
slowly. Besides, regardless of testing depth, the mortar slab
exposed curing air has the fastest decline rate of humidity, fol-
lowed by chemical membrane cured and then plastic sheet covered
slabs. In addition, the three humidity curves of the three measured

Fig. 7. Temperature history of the surface layer of mortar slab.

chemical membrane and exposed in the air all were lower than
those of specimens cured with plastic sheets, but distinct different
peak values could be observed at each depth in these two kinds of
specimens. Among them, the peak value of the temperature of the
specimens used chemical membrane at 10 mm, 20 mm and 40 mm
depths were 38.9 °C, 37.9 °C, and 35.9 °C, while the corresponding
values of the air-exposed slab were 37.4 °C, 36.1 °C and 34.3 °C,
respectively. After 100 h, the temperature of the specimens at each
depth tended to be relatively steady and similar to the trends and
amplitude of the ambient temperature.
Fig. 8 shows the bottom temperature history of the slabs cured
with three methods on their top surface. The discrepancy of the
temperature caused by different curing conditions was observed,
especially within the first 150 h. The peak values of the tempera-
ture of the specimens cured with air-exposed, chemical membrane
and plastic sheet covering were 46.5 °C, 47.7 °C and 56.6 °C, respec-
tively. This indicates that the treatment on the top surface has a
crucial impact on the temperature of the bottom of the mortar
slabs. This also reflects the importance of surface curing to the
quality of mortar from another aspect.
The reasons why the internal temperature of mortar changed
are complex and mainly include heat release from cement hydra-
tion, heat transfer caused by the difference in local temperature,
and heat consumption by moisture evaporation from the exposed
surface. The curing method with a plastic sheet covering over the
surface is more effective to restrict the evaporation of water and
reduces the rate of heat loss at the surface layer of the slab. This
is the key reason why the surface layer temperature of mortar slab
with the plastic sheet is higher than those of air-exposed and
chemical membrane cured slabs. Nevertheless, the increase of Fig. 9. Relative humidity of the surface layer of mortar slab.

6
B. Sun, T. Noguchi, G. Cai et al. Construction and Building Materials 281 (2021) 122626

depths could be clearly distinguished in the slabs with exposure

curing and chemical membrane curing. However, using plastic
sheet curing, the relative humidity at the different depths was sim-
ilar at the depths of 10 and 20 mm without an obvious difference,
which could remain above 99%RH. Besides, the humidity at depth
of 40 mm remained 100%RH until the end of the test. The above
analyses show that surface treatment of chemical membrane cur-
ing can prevent partial humidity loss, but the effect is much lower
than that of the plastic sheet curing. The same conclusion also can
be obtained from the humidity variation law at the same depth of
the slabs with different curing methods. As shown in Fig. 10, it can
be found that the time corresponding to the relative humidity was
below 100%RH at plastic sheet cured slab is much later than the
other slabs.
The change of moisture inside a mortar slab usually is caused by
moisture evaporation from the surface and water consumption by
cement hydration. However, the decrease of the relative humidity
inside the mortar slab is mainly triggered by the evaporation of
water from the surface. According to the recorded relative humid-
ity history, plastic sheet curing can effectively restrict moisture Fig. 11. Testing compressive strength of the surface layer of the slab.

evaporation. Therefore, the plastic sheet covering may be recom-

mended for curing concrete structures from the view of the econ-
the nonlinear effect of temperature on cement reaction rate and
omy and construction procedure.
with the equivalent age as the maturity index [16].
In addition, the testing compressive strength of 50 mm diame-
X
Dt i  eR½T T r 
E 1 1
ter and 60 mm height cylindrical specimens obtained from the slab t eT ¼ ð1Þ
surface layer by coring is shown in Fig. 11. The strengths of all
specimens increased stably over curing time and the difference where, t eT is the equivalent age at the reference temperature, E is
of the compressive strengths caused by the three curing the apparent activation energy in j=mol, R is the universal gas con-
approaches is small at each testing age. This is explained by two stant, 8.314 J=molA^  K, T is the average absolute temperature of the
facts that the high temperature at the early age accelerated cement concrete during the interval Dti , Kelvin; T r is the absolute reference
hydration and the internal humidity of the three surface curing temperature, Kelvin.
methods always varied within a range that the cement can In Eq. (1), the nonlinear expression for temperature is denoted
hydrate, resulting in the stable development of their compressive as an age conversion factor bT , written as
strengths.
bT ¼ eR½T T r 
E 1 1
ð2Þ

4. A modified concrete maturity model considering the coupled According to existing models such as fib Model Code 2010 [31]
influence of temperature and relative humidity and ACI Committee 209 [32], apparent activation energy,E = 33256
J=mol, was suggested for normal strength concrete, while the abso-
4.1. Temperature and relative humidity influenced maturity of lute reference temperature was taken asT r = 293 °K(or 20 °C).
concrete Therefore, the temperature dependent age conversion factor is
applied as the following function.
According to Saul [29] and Benaicha et al. [30], a maturity
bT ¼ e½13:65273þT 
4000
ð3Þ
method was developed to describe the effect of temperature and
time on the strength development of cement-based materials dur- Here, the unit of the factor T in Eq. (3) is in °C. The relationship
ing the cement reaction process. The frequently used maturity between curing temperature and bT can be found as the red curve
function was proposed through the Arrhenius equation to present in Fig. 12.
Besides, the effect of relative humidity on the cement reaction
rate can be described by a factor bRH [33]. As plotted in Fig. 12,
bRH is a function decreased with decreasing relative humidity.
 4
RH  55
bRH ¼ ð4Þ
45
where, RH is the relative humidity in 100%.
Through Eqs. (3) and (4), an age conversion factor bT;RH consider-
ing the coupled influence of temperature and relative humidity can
be expressed as
 4
RH  55
bT;RH ¼ bT  bRH ¼ e½13:65273þT  
4000
ð5Þ
45
In this case, the equivalent age teT;RH can be converted to the fol-
lowing equation.
X  4
RH  55
Dt i e½13:65273þT  
4000
Fig. 10. Relative humidity history of 10 mm depth of three curing methods of slab. teT;RH ¼ ð6Þ
45

7
B. Sun, T. Noguchi, G. Cai et al.
Fig. 12.. The influence factor of temperature and relative humidity.
According to Eq. (5), the age conversion factor in each time
interval Dti can be calculated by the temperature and relative
humidity obtained through the sensors in the specimens at the dif-
ferent depths. As shown in Fig. 13, the fluctuation of temperature
and the decline of relative humidity over time is coupled to the cal-
culation results of the age conversion factor. Consequently, the
effects of temperature and relative humidity at different depths
on the age conversion factor can be distinguished. Similarly, the
same principle also can be found in the results of the slab speci-
mens, which are not presented here for brevity.
The comparison between the calculated equivalent age versus
experimental curing time of the specimens with different depth
of cylindrical specimen is shown in Fig. 14. The equivalent time
curves considering only temperature effect (dashed curve) and
Fig. 13. Temperature and relative humidity dominated age conversion factor at
each time interval.
8
Construction and Building Materials 281 (2021) 122626
coupled effect of temperature and relative humidity (solid curve)
are presented in Fig. 14. While the effect of relative humidity
was considered, the equivalent time of the specimens at each
depth dropped significantly, especially in the zones near exposed
surfaces. This is the similar results reported by previous research-
ers that the prevailing maturity approach considering only temper-
ature effect generally overestimated the compressive strength of
concrete [17]. In addition, the equivalent time at each depth was
invariably lower than the value under the reference condition
(T = 20 °C, RH = 100%), which was mainly due to the temperature
at each depth was lower than 20 °C during the testing period.
Through Eq. (6), the equivalent time at each tested depth of the
slab specimens with different surface curing methods is shown in
Fig. 15. The calculated equivalent time at the initial period of cur-
ing was higher than that under the standard curing (T = 20 °C,
RH = 100%). This is due to the temperature rise caused by the heat
of cement hydration at the initial curing period, see Fig. 7. Then,
the internal temperature of the slabs gradually approached the
ambient temperature(＜20 °C), which results in the final equiva-
lent time was lower than the standard value. Three different sur-
face treatments revealed the different impacts on the equivalent
time. In addition, under the coupled effect of temperature and rel-
ative humidity, the equivalent time curve at each testing depth
appeared an obvious dispersion, except for the plastic sheet cured
slab. Because the temperature or relative humidity at each testing
depth of the plastic sheet slab was extremely close during the
whole curing period.
4.2. Strength prediction of mortar at different depths from the surface
The fib model code 2010 [31] introduces a prediction model for
predicting the early strength gain of concrete with time, which is
given by
  
28 0:5
f cm ðt Þ ¼ f cm  e s 1ð t Þ ð7Þ
where, f cm ðt Þ is the mean compressive strength in MPa at a certain
age t in days; f cm is the mean compressive strength in MPa at
28 days; t is the concrete age modified according to Eq. (6) in days;
s is a coefficient depending on the strength class of cement. In this
study, the factor s was taken as 0.38.
Fig. 16 shows the evaluated compressive strength of cylindrical
specimens at different depths and the tested strength of the spec-
imens with water curing and surface-exposed curing. It can be
Fig. 14. Calculated equivalent time of each depth of mortar cylinder.
B. Sun, T. Noguchi, G. Cai et al. Construction and Building Materials 281 (2021) 122626

(a) Exposed specimens

Fig. 15. Calculated equivalent time of each depth of mortar slab.

(b) Chemical membrane specimens

Fig. 16. Evaluated and testing compressive strength of mortar cylinder.

found that the strength of water cured specimens (100%RH) is

slightly higher than the predicted values by the model at
40 mm-depth. This is because the relative humidity slightly
dropped below 100%RH during curing. The strength values of the
surface-exposed cured specimens follow the strength prediction
curve obtained by the model at 20 mm depth. Although the
strength at the depth between 20 mm and 100 mm from the
exposed surface is theoretically higher than that at the 20 mm-
depth, it can be inferred that the results of the concrete compres-
sive strength were mainly reflected in the weaker field (surface
layer). In other words, once the load exceeded a certain level, the
(c) Plastic sheet specimen
weak field of the specimen first reaches the ultimate strength
and then fails. Fig. 17. Evaluated and testing compressive strength of three surface curing
Fig. 17(a)-(c) show the testing and predicted strength of the sur- technique.
face layer of the tested slab specimens. Regardless of surface treat-
ment methods, the predicted strengths of the specimens at the tive humidity was considered. However, the prediction accuracy
curing age of 3, 7 and 14 days were close to the testing results. fully meets the requirement of practical project management.
The tested strengths at 35 days were slightly lower than the pre- The results also indicate that the surface layer of slab specimens
dicted strength based on the model at the depth of 10 mm. The is the weakest area of the concrete member at an early age, which
results show that the strength evaluation model still slightly over- reflects the importance of an appropriate surface curing to ensure
estimated the tested strength of the slabs, even the effect of rela- the quality of concrete structures.
9
B. Sun, T. Noguchi, G. Cai et al.
5. Main conclusions and remarking
In this study, the fluctuations of temperature and relative
humidity with time inside the cement mortars were recorded by
embedded sensors, and the effect of T and HR on the early-age
compressive strength of the cement mortar was investigated and
modeled. The effects of three outdoor curing methods on the cylin-
drical cement mortar specimens, and three surface curing tech-
niques on large-scale cement mortar slabs also were studied,
respectively. The compressive strength of mortars under different
curing systems was evaluated by a relative humidity-modified
maturity model. Several main conclusions are summarized as
follows:
1. For small scale cylindrical mortar specimens, the internal tem-
perature of the mortar did not have obvious discrepancies with
the ambient temperature during the entire curing period as the
dimensional effect, while the internal relative humidity fluctu-
ated down with the ambient relative humidity at the same fre-
quency. The influence of humidity on the strength development
of mortars was verified by a comparative study on the different
curing systems. The more exposed area led to a faster dissipa-
tion of the internal humidity of the mortar, which in turn decel-
erated the strength growth of the mortar.
2. Slab specimens can be found to have significantly increased
temperature due to the release of heat due to cement hydration
at the initial period of curing. The three surface curing systems
showed different inhibitory effects on internal relative humid-
ity drop. Plastic sheet covering can effectively inhibit moisture
loss from the surface. Compared to exposed curing, concrete
slabs with chemical membrane curing can inhibit the relative
humidity loss to some extent.
3. From the viewpoint of maturity, the age conversion factor exhib-
ited a coupled fluctuation pattern with both temperature and
humidity after taking the relative humidity effect into account,
which further contributes to the equivalent time. The results also
verified that merely considering the temperature on strength
development of the specimen generally overestimates the
strength of concrete. The testing strength of a specimen normally
reflects the strength in the weak area inside the specimen.
4. The humidity-modified maturity model proposed in the study
allows the quantitative characterization of the coupling effect
of T and RH mortar properties through strength. The predicted
strengths based on proposed model at different depths are coin-
cident with the experimental results that the surface layer was
the weakest area of the slab specimens.
It should be noticed that more experimental investigations are
expected to verify the model developed in the study, especially
the multiscale experimental data of the mortar at a certain height
with the same gradient of relative humidity which is lower than
100% and decreased progressively from the surface.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Bochao Sun: Investigation, Methodology, Visualization, Writing -
original draft. Takafumi Noguchi: Conceptualization, Methodol-
ogy, Supervision. Gaochuang Cai: Conceptualization, Supervision,
Visualization, Investigation, Writing - original draft. Weijian Zhao:
Supervision.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
10
Construction and Building Materials 281 (2021) 122626
References
[1] J. Bisschop, F.K. Wittel, Contraction gradient induced microcracking in
hardened cement paste, Cem. Concr. Compos. 33 (4) (2011) 466–473,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2011.02.004.
[2] W.A. Megid, K.H. Khayat, Variations in surface quality of self-consolidation and
highly workable concretes with formwork material, Constr. Build. Mater. 238
(2020) 117638, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.117638.
[3] D.-W. Ryu, J.-W. Ko, T. Noguchi, Effects of simulated environmental conditions
on the internal relative humidity and relative moisture content distribution of
exposed concrete, Cem. Concr. Compos. 33 (1) (2011) 142–153, https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2010.09.009.
[4] M. Schwotzer, T. Scherer, A. Gerdes, Protective or damage promoting effect of
calcium carbonate layers on the surface of cement based materials in aqueous
environments, Cem. Concr. Res. 40 (9) (2010) 1410–1418, https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.cemconres.2010.05.001.
[5] D. Russell, P.A.M. Basheer, G.I.B. Rankin, A.E. Long, Effect of relative humidity
and air permeability on prediction of the rate of carbonation of concrete, Proc.
Inst. Civ. Eng. Struct. Build. 146 (3) (2001) 319–326, https://doi.org/10.1680/
stbu.2001.146.3.319.
[6] J. Xu, X. Wang, W.u. Yao, Coupled effects of carbonation and bio-deposition in
concrete surface treatment, Cem. Concr. Compos. 104 (2019) 103358, https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2019.103358.
[7] J. Liu, F. Xing, B. Dong, H. Ma, D. Pan, Study on water sorptivity of the surface
layer of concrete, Mater. Struct. Constr. 47 (11) (2014) 1941–1951, https://doi.
org/10.1617/s11527-013-0162-x.
[8] Y. Huang, H. Ye, C. Fu, N. Jin, Modeling moisture transport at the surface layer
of fatigue-damaged concrete, Constr. Build. Mater. 151 (2017) 196–207,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.06.038.
[9] M.H. Nguyen, K. Nakarai, Y. Kai, S. Nishio, Early evaluation of cover concrete
quality utilizing water intentional spray tests, Constr. Build. Mater. 231 (2020)
117144, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.117144.
[10] D.X. Xuan, Z.H. Shui, S.P. Wu, Influence of silica fume on the interfacial bond
between aggregate and matrix in near-surface layer of concrete, Constr. Build.
Mater. 23 (7) (2009) 2631–2635, https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.conbuildmat.2009.01.006.
[11] H. Bilal, T. Chen, M. Ren, X. Gao, A. Su, Influence of silica fume, metakaolin &
SBR latex on strength and durability performance of pervious concrete, Constr.
Build. Mater. 275 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.122124
122124.
[12] X. Wang, K. Park, Analysis of the compressive strength development of
concrete considering the interactions between hydration and drying, Cem.
Concr. Res. 102 (2017) 1–15, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconres.2017.08.010.
[13] T. Matsushita, S. Hoshino, I. Maruyama, T. Noguchi, K. Yamada, Effect of Curing
Temperature and Water to Cement Ratio on Hydration of Cement Compounds,
12th Int. Congr. Chem. Cem. (2007). file:///C:/Users/admin/Desktop/SUN/文献/
已打-effect of curing temperature and water to cement ratio on hydration of
cement compounds.pdf.
[14] L. Li, R. Wang, S. Zhang, Effect of curing temperature and relative humidity on
the hydrates and porosity of calcium sulfoaluminate cement, Constr. Build.
Mater. 213 (2019) 627–636, https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.conbuildmat.2019.04.044.
[15] H. Zhao, K. Jiang, R. Yang, Y. Tang, J. Liu, Experimental and theoretical analysis
on coupled effect of hydration, temperature and humidity in early-age
cement-based materials, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 146 (2020) 118784,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2019.118784.
[16] F. Hansen, P.J. Pedersen, Maturity computer for controlled curing and
hardening of concrete, Nord. Betong. (1977).
[17] Mateusz Wyrzykowski, Pietro Lura, Effect of relative humidity decrease due to
self-desiccation on the hydration kinetics of cement, Cem. Concr. Res. 85
(2016) 75–81, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconres.2016.04.003.
[18] Robert J. Flatt, George W. Scherer, Jeffrey W. Bullard, Why alite stops hydrating
below 80% relative humidity, Cem. Concr. Res. 41 (9) (2011) 987–992, https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconres.2011.06.001.
[19] Miao Ren, Xiaodong Wen, Xiaojian Gao, Yushi Liu, Thermal and mechanical
properties of ultra-high performance concrete incorporated with
microencapsulated phase change material, Constr. Build. Mater. 273 (2021)
121714, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.121714.
[20] Zongyun Mo, Xiaojian Gao, Anshuang Su, Mechanical performances and
microstructures of metakaolin contained UHPC matrix under steam curing
conditions, Constr. Build. Mater. 268 (2021) 121112, https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.conbuildmat.2020.121112.
[21] H. Al-Khaiat, M.N. Haque, Effect of initial curing on early strength and physical,
Cem. Concr. Res. 28 (1998) 859–866.
[22] P.N. Hiremath, S.C. Yaragal, Effect of different curing regimes and durations on
early strength development of reactive powder concrete, Constr. Build. Mater.
154 (2017) 72–87, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.07.181.
[23] Samir N. Shoukry, Gergis W. William, Brian Downie, Mourad Y. Riad, Effect of
moisture and temperature on the mechanical properties of concrete, Constr.
Build. Mater. 25 (2) (2011) 688–696, https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.conbuildmat.2010.07.020.
[24] B. Sun, T. Noguchi, G. Cai, Q. Chen, Prediction of early compressive strength of
mortars at different curing temperature and relative humidity by a modified
maturity method, Struct. Concr. (2020), https://doi.org/
10.1002/suco.202000041.
B. Sun, T. Noguchi, G. Cai et al.
[25] Z. Mi, Y. Hu, Q. Li, X. Gao, T. Yin, Maturity model for fracture properties of
concrete considering coupling effect of curing temperature and humidity,
Constr. Build. Mater. 196 (2019) 1–13, https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.conbuildmat.2018.11.127.
[26] Wei-Chong Liao, B.J. Lee, C.W. Kang, A humidity-adjusted maturity function for
the early age strength prediction of concrete, Cem. Concr. Compos. 30 (6)
(2008) 515–523, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2008.02.006.
[27] S. Hee, K. Pil, J. Bang, J. Hwa, Y. Yong, Prediction of concrete compressive
strength considering humidity and temperature in the construction of nuclear
power plants, Nucl. Eng. Des. 275 (2014) 23–29, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
nucengdes.2014.04.025.
[28] C. Elements, U. Drilled, C. Cores, C.C. Specimens, H. Concrete, B. Statements,
Astm C42/C42M16, ASTM Int. (2012), https://doi.org/10.1520/C0042.
11
Construction and Building Materials 281 (2021) 122626
[29] A.G.A. Saul, Principles underlying the steam curing of concrete at atmospheric
pressure, Mag. Concr. Res. 2 (6) (1951) 127–140, https://doi.org/
10.1680/macr.1951.2.6.127.
[30] M. Benaicha, Y. Burtschell, A.H. Alaoui, Prediction of compressive strength at
early age of concrete - Application of maturity, J. Build. Eng. 6 (2016) 119–125,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2016.03.003.
[31] fib Model Code for Concrete Structures 2010, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1002/
9783433604090.
[32] ACI Committee 209, ACI 209.2R-08 Guide for Modeling and Calculating
Shrinkage and Creep in Hardened Concrete, 2008.
[33] L.J. Parrot, D.C. Killoh, Prediction of cement hydration, Br. Ceram. Proc. (1984).