This article investigates the development of the following material properties of concrete with time: compressive strength, tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and fracture energy. These properties were determined at seven different hydration ages (18 h, 30 h, 48 h, 72 h, 7 days, 14 days, 28 days) for four pure cement concrete mixes totaling 336 specimens tested throughout the study. Experimental data obtained were used to assess the relationship of the above properties with the concrete compressive strength and how these relationships are affected with age. Further, this study investigates prediction models available in literature and recommendations are made for models that are found suitable for application to early age concrete. Results obtained indicate that the relationship between the splitting tensile strength and concrete compressive strength can be approximated with a power function between 0.7 and 0.8, and this correlation is not affected by age. Fracture energy of the concrete and modulus of elasticity values obtained in this study correlate well with the square root of the compressive strength and it was found that this relationship holds true for all hydration ages investigated in this paper. Inverse analysis on the wedge-splitting test was conducted to determine the direct tensile strength. Values of tensile strength obtained from the inverse analysis have been validated numerically by carrying out finite element analysis on the wedge split, and anchor pull-out tests. The ratio of the tensile strength obtained from the inverse analysis to the splitting tensile strength was found to be in the range of 0.5–0.9 and 0.7 on average.
