Applicability of X-ray computed tomography for concrete cellular structure analysis

Abstract

Nowadays, the researchers of materials sciences area, use direct and indirect methods such as microscopy, porosimetry, etc. for studying structural characteristics of materials. X-ray computed tomography is among one of the modern and widely used research analytical methods that provides 3D images of solid materials without any preliminary preparation, such as crashing of sample, and violation of its structural integrity. To demonstrate the potential possibilities of X-ray computed tomography, in this research matrices with cellular structure using portland cement-based cellular concrete was studied as an example. The study showed that the pore structure of cellular concrete is dominated by capillary pores with a diameter of up to 200 μm. The majority of pores did not exceed 1.6 mm in diameter, that formed during the foaming process. The calculated average size of the volumetric distribution of air voids was 0.95 mm. About 80% of large pores of a cellular concrete specimen with an average size of about 1 mm determines high porosity of the composite which is consistent with its average density values. The study of interpore structure partition using X-ray computed tomography allows for evaluation the difference in thickness from 10 μm to 0.6 mm in the zones of "confluence" of large pores. The porosity of cement matrix, including individual pores with sizes from ≈30 to 250 μm, was about 16.5%. The cement matrix is dominated by the products of cement hydration with capillary and “gel” pores. There are few nonreacted cement particles that are evenly distributed throughout the volume of the composite. To obtain more complete information about the structure of cellular concrete or any other composite, it is necessary to perform complex studies applying not only X-ray computer tomography technique, also scanning electron microscopy for evaluation of chemical analysis to identify mineral phases present and correlate them with absorption intensity of X-ray radiation on tomographic images.