Influence of drying and water supplying after drying on tensile strength of cement mortar Original Research Article

This paper is concerned with the change in tensile strength of cement mortar sibjected to rapid drying and water supply after drying. Flexural strength was investigated for several cement paste specimens cured in water for a certain period, with some specimens dried for 1 day and cured again in water after drying. As a result, it is known that the flexural strength of the specimen allowed to dry becomes about 13 of that of a sound specimen, but it is almost recovered after about 3 h water curing after drying. The reason why the strength changes is usually connected with a restrained stress due to drying shrinkage and a stress relaxation due to expansion caused by water absorption. However, when the restrained stress at the surface overtakes the tensile strength, and a considerable number of minute cracks occur, as was observed, the above explanation cannot be accepted, because the tensile stress is almost perfectly relaxed by the occurrence of the cracks. In this paper, the reason for the strength recovery as a result of water absorption is reconsidered by means of stress analysis and microscopic examination of the cracks.