Water Absorption and Surface Moisture:

Water Absorption

All aggregates have permeable pores of varying sizes over a wide range, which causes porosity. The porosity varies from 0 to 20 percent for commonly available rocks. Water absorption of aggregate is the percentage of water absorbed through an aggregate after immersing it into the water in standard manner for 24 hours and then bringing it to saturated surface dry (SSD) condition. The average range of water absorption for generally available aggregates is 0.5-1.0 %.