Nonevaporable water from neat OPC and replacement materials in composite cements hydrated at different temperatures

Pastes of two neat OPC and three blended cements using GGBFS (60%), PFA (30%) and a volcanic ash (23%), were cured for up to 1 year at five temperatures. The degree of hydration of the OPCs was estimated by quantitative X-ray diffraction analysis and by measurements of nonevaporable water by thermogravimetry. A correlation between the results from these techniques is presented for the neat OPCSs. The correlation was used to estimate the contribution to the nonevaporable water from the cement replacement material fraction for the blended cements. According to the estimated data, the slag displayed a hydraulic nature retaining significant amounts of water in its hydrates, the slag nonevaporable water values as function of time varied with temperature and the patterns were similar to those of degree of hydration of the neat cement. The data estimated for the two pozzolanic materials indicated that their hydrates retained small amounts of water in spite of the CH consumption.