Low temperature environment affects the development of early performance of tunnel shotcrete.This study investigated the effects of silica fume on the fluidity,compressive strength,and impermeability of alkali-free accelerator-modified cement mortars at low temperatures.XRD,TG-DTG and MIP were used to analyze the changes in hydration products and pore structure.The results show that using silica fume significantly improves the 1 d compressive strength of mortar at low temperatures with an increase of over 300.0%.At 28 d,incorporating 5%(mass fraction)silica fume also increased the compressive strength by 4.7%.Moreover,the impermeability of mortar increases with the increase of the silica fume content.Especially,the impermeability is remarkably improved when the content of silica fume exceeded 10%.Silica fume modification can exert the pozzolanic effect and micro-filling effect at low temperatures,which transformes more-harmful pores towards less-harmful ones,refining the pore structure and making the paste structure denser,thereby improving the compressive strength and impermeability of mortars.