Abrams' law (also called Abrams' water-cement ratio law)
is a concept in
civil engineering
Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...
. The law states the strength of a
concrete mix is inversely related to the
mass
Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
ratio
In mathematics, a ratio () shows how many times one number contains another. For example, if there are eight oranges and six lemons in a bowl of fruit, then the ratio of oranges to lemons is eight to six (that is, 8:6, which is equivalent to the ...
of
water
Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...
to
cement
A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...
.
As the water content increases, the strength of concrete decreases.
Abrams’ law is a special case of a general rule formulated empirically by Feret:
:
where
:S is the strength of concrete
:A and B are constants and A=96 N/mm2, B=7 (this is valid for the strength of concrete at the age of 28 days)
:w/c is the
water–cement ratio, which varies from 0.3 to 1.20
References
[Abrams law, air and high water-to-cement ratios by ELSEVIER ]
Civil engineering
{{Civil-engineering-stub