What is the moisture content of concrete?
The moisture content of concrete is viewed from the context of total water content of the fresh concrete mixture and the available moisture content of the hardened concrete. The total water content of a fresh concrete mixture is a function of the total cementitious materials and water cement ratio (w/cm). Typical fresh concrete mixtures vary in cementitious material content in a range of 279 kg/m3 to 415 kg/m3 (470 lb/yd3 to 700 lb/yd3). Water cement ratios typically vary from 0.4 to 0.55. To estimate the available moisture content of hardened concrete one must begin with the total water content of the fresh mixture and define the service condition of the hardened concrete with regard to relative humidity (%). In addition, the water that is chemically bound with the cement in the hydration process must be accounted for. The water bound with the cement is in the range of 0.22 to 0.24 of the cement content. As an example, the moisture content of a concrete mixture with 334 kg/m3 (564 lb/