Determination of the cement content of five samples of hardened concrete by means of optical microscopy
article
This article presents the results of a microscopic analysis to determine the cement content of five samples of hardened concrete prepared with portland pozzolanic cement and crushed limestone as part of the aggregate. The volume fraction of the coarse aggregate was determined macroscopically from polished plates of the concrete samples. The volume fractions of the cement paste, the fine aggregate and the air voids were determined microscopically from thin sections. Both analyses were carried out by means of point-counting. The mass by volume of the samples was determined according to RILEM Recommendation CPC 11.3. The cement content of the concrete samples was calculated from the point-counting results combined with the estimated water-cement ratio, the estimated mass by volume of the cement paste and the measured mass by volume of the concrete samples. Corrections were made for the resulting value concerning part of the very fine aggregate material (≤ 63 μm) that may have been counted as part of the cement paste during the point-counting analysis.
TNO Identifier
328859
Source
Heron, 42(2), pp. 125-138.
Pages
125-138