Microscopy techniques for determining water–cement (w/c) ratio in hardened concrete: A round-robin assessment

Water to cement (w/c) ratio is usually the most important parameter specified in concrete design and is sometimes the subject of dispute when a shortfall in concrete strength or durability is an issue. However, determination of w/c ratio in hardened concrete by testing is very difficult once the concrete has set. This paper presents the...

Revealing the dark side of Portlandite Clusters in cement paste by circular polarization microscopy

Plane and crossed polarization are the two standard light modes in polarized light microscopy that are widely used to characterize crystalline and amorphous phases in cement-based materials. However, the use of the crossed polarized light mode has been found to be restrictive for studying birefringent phases quantitatively due to the extinction...

Looking at glass from a different angle: New insights into fracture patterns through transmitted light microscopy

This paper shows the benefit of using transmitted light microscopy together with a Z-scanning software in fractographical analyses of glass. The strength of glass is largely dependent on processes that happen at the microscale. In this research, 52 plates were fractured in a biaxial tensile test. These were divided into five categories according...