Thermodynamic modeling of hydrated white Portland cement–metakaolin–limestone blends utilizing hydration kinetics from ²⁹Si MAS NMR spectroscopy

Hydration kinetics for the principal phases of Portland cement blends have been incorporated in thermodynamic modeling (GEMS package), utilizing degrees of hydration from ²⁹Si MAS NMR. An empirical relationship for the reaction of these phases is established which includes three variable parameters that all can be estimated from the degrees of hydration. This approach is compared with thermodynamic equilibrium modeling (full hydration) for white Portland cement–metakaolin (0–30 wt.%) blends and for ternary blends of white Portland cement (65 wt.%)–metakaolin–limestone. The predicted phase assemblages have been compared with the phases identified by XRD, ²⁷Al and ²⁹Si MAS NMR which reveals that the incorporation of hydration kinetics improves the agreement between modeling and experiments. The results show also that the formation of strätlingite depends critically on the quantity of charge-balancing anions in the AFm phases, especially carbonate and sulfate anions, and on the degree of hydration for metakaolin.