NMR control of aging and durability of hardened cement pastes

We report on proton NMR relaxation of hardened and aged grey and white CEM I paste with several controlled degree of relative humidity. A proton NMR relaxation study of these two CEM I cement pastes shows very different pore size hierarchies for these two materials. The good sensitivity of the proposed method for analysing the evolution of the pore size dependencies under drying and wetting history of the material could be very useful for studying the durability of building material under severe conditions of use. (C) 2009 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.