Technical Bulletin # 1
Importance of water/cement ratio
POWER TRANSMISSION LIMITED
Introduction :
In a construction companys one of the projects;
the cost of rectification and retrofitting was more
than 1 crore. Reason? After a lot of investigation,
it was established that the site team added
additional water in concrete during concreting.
Due to this, concrete cubes failed to achieve the
desire compressive strength and they failed. By
adding additional water at site, water/cement
ratio increased, resulting in to drastic loss of
compressive strength.
1. Key Terminology
Curing : Curing is a procedure of preventing
concrete from getting dried out of moisture.
2. What is water/cement (w/c) ratio?
Concrete is manmade stone which contains three
basic components: water, aggregates and cement.
The mass of water in kg (or in liter as density of
water is 1 g/cc) in the concrete mix compared with
the mass of cement in kg is water/cement (w/c)
ratio.
e.g. if in 1 cum. of concrete; 400 kg of cement and
200 kg of water is used,
Water-Cement Ratio =
= significant influencing property. Water & cement
= 0.50
In concrete, sand is called fine aggregate and
crushed stone is called coarse aggregate. Cement
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A QA/QC Department Initiative
and water form a paste that coats the coarse and
fine aggregates in the mix. The paste hardens and
binds the coarse and fine aggregates together.
3. Limits of w/c ratio as per IS 456:2000
To produce concrete, water is added in mix of
cement, aggregate (coarse and fine aggregate).
The water is required to start hydration process.
There are two objectives to add water in concrete,
i) a chemical process called hydration to take
place, and
ii) to bring workability.
Pic-1 : Adding water in concrete mixer drum
Researches have shown that for hydration process
to take place, water equivalent to 0.23 w/c ratio is
required. Additional water is required for
workability (ease of placing and moving concrete).
If water less than 0.23 w/c ratio is added in
concrete, hydration process cannot take place.
At project locations, additional uncontrolled water
is added resulting in to loss of compressive
strength of concrete.
4. Importance of water/cement ratio
In concrete, amount of water is the most
are two ingredients responsible for binding
everything together.
Strictly for internal circulation only
 Technical Bulletin # 1
Importance of water/cement ratio
POWER TRANSMISSION LIMITED A QA/QC Department Initiative

Water/cement ratio, determines the strength

and durability of the concrete if it is cured
properly.
A lower w/c ratio of 0.4 is generally specified if
a higher grade concrete is desired.
As per IS 456:2000, maximum w/c ratio for
various exposure condition and for PCC is in
range of 0.6 to 0.40 and for RCC it is in the
range of 0.55 to 0.40.
Usually, per m3 of concrete, 180 liter water is
used. hypothetically, if desired compressive
strength is 20 N/mm2, for the same cement,
compressive strength reduces to 8 N/mm2 if 30 Pic-2 : Segregation in concrete
liter more water is added.
Apart from segregation, more water results in
to Bleeding. Bleedings means after placing the
Compressive Strength (N/mm2)
concrete, the water comes out on the surface.
Because of bleeding, cement is dragged out of
the concrete in the form of thin slurry. It
20 reduces proper bonding with second layer of
16
12 cement concrete and severely affects the
8
strength of concrete.
As per + 10 l/cum. + 20 l/cum. + 30 l/cum.
design

Graph-1 : Effect of uncontrolled water

Using a lower w/c ratio is the usual way to

achieve a high strength and high quality
concrete.
Good concrete results from good mix design,
and a low w/c ratio is just one part of a good
mix design. We have to consider the good
quality of aggregate and proper mixing in drum
also. Pic-3 : Bleeding in concrete

When more water is used, the cement slurry

5. Effect of higher w/c ratio than specified
When more water is mixed in cement
concrete, the problem of segregation of
material is faced at the time of laying the mix.
Segregation means loosing of homogeneity of
concrete mass in green concrete by separating
out coarse and fine aggregate from the
cement-water matrix.
starts coming out from cement concrete mix.
The excess slurry formed by water and cement
comes out through shuttering joints. This
results in to lesser cement content in the
concrete mass and reduces the strength of
concrete.

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 Technical Bulletin # 1
Importance of water/cement ratio
POWER TRANSMISSION LIMITED A QA/QC Department Initiative

6. Effect on compressive strength of cube due to

w/c ratio

Table 31 of SP 23 Relationship between

Water cement ratio and compressive
strength of concrete
Water Cement Compressive strength at
Ratio by Weight 28 days for identical mix
of concrete
kgf/cm2 N/mm2
0.38 450 44.1
Pic-4 : Honey-combing in concrete 0.43 400 39.2
0.48 350 34.3
When more water is used, proper compaction 0.55 300 29.4
is not achieved which results in to large 0.62 250 24.5
number of bug holes, large voids, more 0.70 200 19.6
shrinkage cracks, less strength and less 0.80 150 14.7
durability.
Water cement ratio relation with
compressive strength of concrete
Compressive strength (N/mm2) --

50.0
45.0
40.0 40.0
35.0
30.0 30.0
25.0
20.0 20.0
15.0
10.0
---->

0.0
0.30 0.50 0.70 0.90
water cement ratio ---------->
Pic-5 : Bug-holes in set concrete
Graph-2 : relation of w/c & compressive strength

Based on above table and graph it can be

concluded that water/cement ratio is inversely
proportional with compressive strength of
concrete. With increase of water/cement ratio
than specified, compressive strength of
concrete reduced drastically.

7. Volumetric batched concrete & standard

method of preparing concrete to control w/c
ratio
Creating awareness among Engineers,
Pic-6 : Shrinkage cracks in set concrete contractors and supervisor for water
requirement to produce good concrete mix as
per Technical specification.

Page 3 of 4 Strictly for internal circulation only

 Technical Bulletin # 1
Importance of water/cement ratio
POWER TRANSMISSION LIMITED A QA/QC Department Initiative

Initial sprinkling of water on coarse aggregate
in acute summer season.
Similar to standard gauge box for aggregates,
standard vessel like bucket or similar must be
established.
Strict supervision during concrete production.
Following sequence of concrete preparation:
Half of the water to be added in drum first.
Then adding coarser material and then finer
material (20 mm- 10 mm Sand cement).
Remaining water to be added at the end.
Drum must be rotated minimum for 2 minutes
after addition of water into concrete mix.
Usage of tamping from outside drum for
proper mixing of finer particles (cement &
sand) with coarse material properly.
While batching concrete using concrete mixer,
if w/c ratio is found lesser or more than
specified, necessary water correction to be
done in subsequent batches, so that overall
w/c ratio gets maintained.
While batching concrete using SLM (Self
Loading Mixer), the single batch size is very
large. Hence, care should be taken for
controlling w/c ratio as specified.
Strictly not adding uncontrolled water in to
the concrete mix.
8. Quantity of water for nominal batched
concrete
The water requirement mentioned in above table
is with assumption that the aggregates are
completely dry and are in SSD (surface saturated
dry) condition. In following conditions, necessary
moisture correction to be done and amount of
water to be reduced accordingly,
Sand (fine aggregate) is wet
Water is sprinkled over coarse aggregates
Rainy season
Water seeps in the foundation (wet
foundation)
Aggregate get wet because of water leakage
from surrounding area
9. References
a) http://www.technogenome.com/2016/03
/water-in-concrete-how-important-it-
is.html
b) IS 456:2000 Plain & reinforced concrete, 4th
revision
c) SP 23:1982 Handbook on Concrete Mix
(based on Indian standards)

Type of Proportion Proportion Proportion

Mixer 1:1.5:3 1:2:4 1:3:6
0.5 bag 25 litre 25 litre 25 litre
concrete
mixer
1.0 bag 50 litre 50 litre 50 litre
concrete
mixer
2 cum. 200 litre 160 litre 110 litre
SLM
4 cum. 400 litre 320 litre 220 litre
SLM

In SLM, if concrete batch is less than above

mentioned quantity, quantity of water to be
reduced accordingly.

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