SEM-backscattered electron imaging and image processing for evaluation of unhydrated cement volume fraction in slag blended Portland cement pastes

Abstract

Proper parameters for image taking and minimum field number for image processing were investigated to evaluate volume fraction of unhydrated cement(UHC) in both neat cement paste and slag blended cement paste. Our research suggested that magnification 250× was sufficient for the two pastes, and accelerating voltage should be set as 15 kV and 20 kV for BSE image taking of neat cement paste and slag blended cement paste respectively; the minimum field number increased while the total imaging area stayed the same as the magnification increased within certain statistical bias.