The Effect of an Accelerator on Cement Paste Capillary Pores: NMR Relaxometry Investigations

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) relaxometry is a valuable tool for investigating cement-based materials. It allows monitoring of pore evolution and water consumption even during the hydration process. The approach relies on the proportionality between the relaxation time and the pore size. Note, however, that this approach inherently assumes that the pores are saturated with water during the hydration process. In the present work, this assumption is eliminated, and the pore evolution is discussed on a more general basis. The new approach is implemented here to extract information on surface evolution of capillary pores in a simple cement paste and a cement paste containing calcium nitrate as accelerator. The experiments revealed an increase of the pore surface even during the dormant stage for both samples with a faster evolution in the presence of the accelerator. Moreover, water consumption arises from the beginning of the hydration process for the sample containing the accelerator while no water is consumed during dormant stage in the case of simple cement paste. It was also observed that the pore volume fractal dimension is higher in the case of cement paste containing the accelerator.