EFFECT OF WATER CEMENT RATIO ON COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH, POROSITY AND CHLORIDE MIGRATION OF DIFFERENT MORTAR SAMPLE

Mortar has been widely used in building construction as a finishes and as a binder to bind
masonry units together. The strength and the resistance to environmental attack such as
salt water are very important. Water cement ratio is one of the common criteria that may
affect the durability and others of mortar. This study presents the effect of water cement
ratio on the development of compressive strength, total porosity and the migration of
chloride into mortar samples.
The compressive strength test result shows that water cement ratio has inverse
relationship with the development of compressive strength and a direct relationship with
the total porosity. For water cement ratio ranging from 0.3 to 0.5, there was increase in
compressive strength approximately 30% - 35% for all mortar samples and the total
porosity was reduce to 3% to 5%.
For chloride migration test, the rate of chloride migration is too fast. The samples are too
small which is 50mmj; a full penetration was achieved for all types of samples.