Concrete microstructure plays an important role in the performance and mechanical behaviors of cementitious materials. In the present study, three cases of concrete microstructure are reconstructed based on the information from X-ray computed tomography (CT), neutron CT, and the complementarity…
Concrete microstructure plays an important role in the performance and mechanical behaviors of cementitious materials. In the present study, three cases of concrete microstructure are reconstructed based on the information from X-ray computed tomography (CT), neutron CT, and the complementarity of X-ray and neutron CT images. Then, each phase in concrete such as aggregates, voids, and paste were obtained using the Otsu thresholding method. One notices that the X-ray CT is sensitive to the density of materials while the neutron CT is sensitive to the hydrogenous components. Thus, the microstructures obtained from each tomogram is quite different because of the difference in the attenuation coefficient. As a result, the corresponding mechanical properties may change according to the CT images. Then, the finite element analysis is performed for the three cases, i.e., X-ray CT, neutron CT, and complementarity CT. The computational results are compared to demonstrate the effect of the microstructure on macroscopic elastic modulus. The findings of this study shed light on the importance of accurate microstructure representation on the mechanical property of concrete.