Prior work to characterize the hydration products in a cement paste prepared with a sodium nitrite-based antifreeze admixture that effectively promoted hydration at subfreezing temperatures did not reveal anything unusual in the chemical composition, suggesting that the nature of the antifreeze action was physical (i.e., preventing the freezing of water) rather than chemical. To confirm this, the time domain reflectometry (TDR) technique was used to track the evolution of the volumetric water content together with hydrated and unhydrated cement in control and antifreeze-added cement pastes that were cured at −10 °C for three weeks. The results show clear evidence of the existence of liquid water in the antifreeze treated samples, and that the amount of water and unreacted cement decrease with time, confirming the presence of ongoing hydration. Modelling results also suggest that the liquid water available for the hydration reactions is in the form of adsorbed water at subfreezing temperatures and as free water above freezing.

用亚硝酸钠基防冻剂混合物制备的水泥浆中的水合产物的先前表征工作有效地促进了亚冰点温度下的水合作用，但化学成分并未发现任何异常现象，这表明该防冻剂的性质是物理的（即，防止水冻结）而不是化学药品。为了证实这一点，使用了时域反射仪（TDR）技术跟踪了在-10°C下固化了三周的对照和抗冻水泥浆中的体积水含量以及水合和非水合水泥的变化。结果清楚地证明了经过防冻处理的样品中存在液态水，并且水和未反应的水泥的量随时间减少，从而证实了存在持续的水合作用。