The degree of hydration assessment of blended cement pastes by differential thermal and thermogravimetric analysis. Morphological evolution of the solid phases

• A proposal of hydration degree calculation for blended cement pastes is presented.
• The method is based both on the contributions of various authors and on DTA–TG results.
• Paste and mortar specimens with BFS, FA and SF mineral admixtures were used.
• The evaluation of CH gives information on hydration and pozzolanic reactions.
• The assessment of α provides an insight into future strength evolution.

The degree of hydration assessment of cement paste from differential thermal and thermogravimetric analysis data has been performed by several authors that have offered a number of proposals for technical application to blended cements. In this paper, two calculation methods are studied in detail. Then, a proposal of the degree of hydration calculation for blended cements, based on the analysis of experimental results of DTA–TG, is presented. The proposed method combines the contributions of the authors and allows straightforward calculation of the degree of hydration from the experimental results. Validation of the methodology was performed by macroscopic and microstructural tests through paste and mortar specimens with blast furnace slag, flying ash and silica fume mineral admixtures bei(g)ng used. Tests of scanning electron microscopy with an energy dispersive analyser on paste specimens, and of mechanical strength on mortar specimens with the same percentages of substitution, were performed. They showed good agreement with the information derived from the differential thermal and thermogravimetric analysis data.