Keywords: concrete, surface, image analysis, microstructure

(He et al. 2018 & Cheng et al. 2018)

 Different conditions of concrete surface might
require different settings for the pre-conditioning.
 Material Sample preparation

≈5 mm

40 mm
40 mm

Study cases (N=5) Cast Slow cut Trim edge

f50 mm, 100 mm length

Vacuum heating (3 hrs) Pt-Pd coating (60 s)

Preconditioning prior to SEM

Camera & image settings

Parameters & method

 Analysis process
• Normalize the image
• Apply bandpass filter
• Threshold for dark pixels
• Retouch non-microcracks
• Apply skeletonize filter

Output
• Total microcrack length
• Average microcrack width
• Total crack area
• Crack area (%) in the image
SEI BEI
I III IV
 EPMA

Regular Rough

I II
Emulated abrasion Acid attack

III IV
Surface detachment of the Case I specimen
-Vacuum heating (Negative pressure, Thermal change)
-Curing tank
Conclusion & future study
Conclusion
• Inconsistency of the conductive coating (Pt-Pd) is subjective
to surface types.
• the vacuum-heating process is suspected to cause an
increment of microcracks, also widening the exist
microcracks.

Future study
• Investigate the extensive microcracking at higher scale
• Check metal-coating materials and coating durations
• Practical & conventional curing methods to concrete
microstructure

16
Pre-conditioning (1) Intro (2) Material - Mortar (w/c ratio:
& Methods 0.5) with 4 study cases
prior to SEM is
- SEM (EPMA-WDX)
essential, and might I. Regular II. Rough - Light-inverted
significantly alter microscope
- Microcrack analysis
SEM results
- Metal-coating effect

III. Abrasion IV. Acid attack

- Metal-coating (Pt-Pd)
is subjective regarding
the surface types.
- Vacuum-heating
(3) (4) caused an increment of
Findings Conclusion microcracks.