Moisture availability is a crucial factor for ongoing hydration reactions and controlling capillary pore water potential (PWP) development in cement-based mixtures. Harsh exposure conditions (such as low relative humidity, high temperature, or high wind speed) or incorporating fine cementitious materials may increase the mixture susceptibility to PWP development, and thus, early-age shrinkage. This study aims to investigate PWP and electrical conductivity development in cement paste and mortar mixtures with various water-to-cement ratios (from 0.25 to 0.4), silica fume substitutions, and internal curing in both sealed and harsh exposure conditions (ambient temperature from 10 to 35°C and relative humidity from 25% to 75%). The results indicate that high ambient temperature and silica fume incorporation substantially accelerate moisture loss and PWP development. The outcome of this study also shows the capability of internal curing using lightweight fine aggregate to delay PWP development in mixtures containing silica fume or exposure to low relative humidity and high-temperature ambient environments.

水分的可用性是正在进行的水合反应和控制水泥基混合物中毛细孔水势（PWP）发展的关键因素。苛刻的暴露条件（例如较低的相对湿度，高温或高风速）或掺入精细的水泥质材料可能会增加混合物对PWP形成的敏感性，从而使早期收缩。这项研究的目的是研究在各种水灰比（从0.25到0.4），硅粉替代物以及在密封和苛刻暴露条件下（环境温度从10开始）内部固化的水泥浆和砂浆混合物中的PWP和电导率的发展情况。至35°C，相对湿度从25％至75％）。结果表明，较高的环境温度和硅粉的掺入可显着加速水分损失和PWP的产生。这项研究的结果还表明，使用轻质细骨料进行内部固化的能力可以延迟含硅灰的混合物中PWP的形成或暴露于低相对湿度和高温环境中。