AIR VOID ANALYSIS OF HARDENED CONCRETE WITH A HIGH-

RESOLUTION FLATBED SCANNER

K. Peterson, L. Sutter, and T. VanDam

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Michigan Technological University
Houghton, Michigan - USA

ABSTRACT

A high-resolution flatbed scanner was used to collect an image of a polished cross-

section through a concrete pavement. The surface was scanned a total of three times in
RGB color. First, the surface was scanned in its natural state prior to the use of stains or
treatments. Between the first and second scan, the surface was stained with a
phenolphthalein solution to color the cement paste pink. Between the second and third
scan, the surface was painted black, and white powder was pressed into the depressions
left by air voids. The images collected were aligned, and a new false-color image was
created using the B band from the non-stained image, the G band from the
phenolphthalein stained image, and the R band from the black-and-white treated image.
A principal components transformation was performed on the false-color image to yield a
three-band principal component image. The third band of the principal component image
and the R band of the black-and-white treated image were input into a classification
scheme to yield an output image. In the output image, each pixel is classified as air void,
cement paste, or aggregate.
 INTRODUCTION

Automation is a common desire amongst people who routinely perform ASTM C457
Standard Test Method for Microscopical Determination of Parameters of the Air-Void
System in Hardened Concrete [1]. Many types of automated methods have been
employed. The research described here differs from most in that the optical microscope
traditionally used to collect the image is replaced by a flatbed scanner. Previous efforts
have involved the use of an ordinary desktop flatbed scanner with 42 x 10 micrometer
pixel resolution (600 x 2400 dpi) [2]. This paper details recent efforts using a high-
resolution flatbed scanner with 8 x 3 micrometer pixel resolution (3175 x 8000 dpi). A
comparison is made between the automated procedure and a manually performed ASTM
C457 modified point count.

EXPERIMENTAL

Sample preparation

A 150 millimeter diameter core was taken from a concrete pavement. A 100 x 100 x 20
millimeter slab was cut from the core with a water-cooled diamond saw. Care was taken
to avoid sampling from the exterior portions of the core that may have experienced
carbonation. One face of the slab was ground and polished by applying hand pressure on
a water-cooled lapping wheel. First, the slab was ground using a series of magnetic-
backed fixed-diamond abrasive platens. Next, the slab was polished with an adhesive-
backed 600 grit fixed-SiC paper. Grinding and polishing residues were removed by a
combination of rinsing with water and blowing with compressed air. Four 5 x 5
millimeter squares of a 200 micrometer thick adhesive-backed reflective foil were placed,
one at each corner, on the polished surface. The foil squares served two purposes: first,
to elevate the slab from the glass surface of the flatbed scanner, (to prevent scratches on
the glass) and second, to assist with the alignment of the scanned images, as is described
later.

Manually performed modified point count

A modified point count was performed according to ASTM C457 on a motorized stage
with a zoom stereo microscope equipped with a video camera. Both the motorized stage
and the video camera were connected to a computer and controlled by a macro written for
NIH Image, a public domain image analysis program developed at the National Institutes
of Health and available on the internet at http://www.scioncorp.com [3]. In addition to the
modified point count, a total of 1,424 digital images of the surface were collected from
the microscope, along with the x,y stage coordinates of the center of each image. The
phase at the center coordinate of each image (cement paste, aggregate, or air) was also
recorded. The 1,424 images were used to compare the classification scheme from the
scanned images with features observed with the microscope.
Surface treatments and scanning

The slab was placed on the flatbed scanner, and scanned in 24 bit RGB color at a pixel
resolution of 10 x 10 micrometers. Next, to stain the cement paste pink, the slab was
sprayed with a 1% solution of phenolphthalein in isopropanol diluted to 50:50 with
distilled water. The slab was then scanned in the same manner as before. Next, the slab
was painted black by drawing slightly overlapping parallel lines with a 12 millimeter
wide spirit pen, taking care to avoid the foil squares. After the ink had dried, the process
was repeated, but the lines were drawn 90° with respect to the first set of lines. After the
second application of ink had dried, 2 micrometer wollastonite white powder was worked
into the surface with the flat face of a glass slide. Next, the bulk of the excess powder
was scraped away with a razor blade. The remaining powder was carefully wiped away
with a lightly oiled fingertip, leaving only the powder pressed into depressions left by air
voids. The black-and-white treated surface was scanned in the same manner as before.

Image alignment

Imperfections in the adhesive-backed foil squares appear as small dark pits in the scanned
images. The same pits can be seen in each of the three scanned images. The x,y
coordinates of a pit in one image can be correlated with the x,y coordinates of the same
pit in another image, and used align the images. A series of twenty coordinate pairs were
used to align the non-treated image to the phenolphthalein-stained image with an overall
root mean square error of 0.38 pixels. A series of twenty coordinate pairs were used to
align the black-and-white treated image to the phenolphthalein stained image with an
overall root mean square error of 0.47 pixels. After the scanned images were aligned to
each other, they were aligned to the stage coordinate system used to collect the
microscope images. A series of twelve coordinate pairs were used to align the scanned
images to the stage coordinate system with an overall root mean square error of 1.70
pixels.

Classification

The B band from the non-stained image, the G band from the phenolphthalein-stained
image, and the R band from the black-and-white treated image were combined to make a
new false-color image with high contrast between the air voids, cement paste, and
aggregate. Figures 1, 2, and 3 show an example subset of each band individually in
grayscale. A principal components transformation was performed on the false-color
image to yield a three-band principal components image. Figure 4 shows an example
subset of principal component band 3. In a principal component analysis, a multi-band
image is transformed to yield a new set of principal component images [4]. The first
principal component band contains the most data variance between the input bands, the
second principal component band contains somewhat less of the data variance between
the input bands, and so forth. Principal component band 3 emphasized the distinction
between cement paste and aggregate. Since the R band from the black-and-white treated
image highlighted the air voids, and principal component band 3 contained high contrast
between the cement paste and aggregate, both bands were used together to develop a
Figure 1: A 13.0 x 11.7 millimeter (1298 x 1169 pixel) subset of the B band from the
scan of the non-treated surface.
Figure2: A 13.0 x 11.7 millimeter (1298 x 1169 pixel) subset of the G band from the
scan of the phenolphthalein-stained surface.
Figure 3: A 13.0 x 11.7 millimeter (1298 x 1169 pixel) subset of the R band from the
scan of the black-and-white treated surface.
Figure 4: A 13.0 x 11.7 millimeter (1298 x 1169 pixel) subset of principal component
band 3.
classification scheme to distinguish between the three phases. To perform the
classification, regions typical of the cement paste, aggregate, and air voids were selected
by the operator. The statistics of the intensity levels of the population of pixels defined
as paste, aggregate, and air void, were subsequently used to classify each pixel in the
entire image as either paste, aggregate, or air void. This approach is called a supervised
classification [5]. In the initial output classified image, there was no distinction made
between air voids in the cement paste and air voids within the aggregate. Entrained air
voids in close proximity to each other tended to be clumped together as one air void.
Furthermore, dark specks in the cement paste from large fragments of the ferrite and
aluminate phases of the cement clinker were classified as aggregate. To account for these
errors, the classified image was edited as follows. Any regions completely surrounded by
aggregate were automatically filled in. A watershed operation was performed to help
separate adjoining air voids [6]. Any aggregate features that consisted of less than 44
pixels (0.004 mm2) were automatically reclassified as cement paste. The cut-off value of
44 pixels was selected to represent the area of a circle with a diameter of 75 micrometers.
None of these three filters is perfect. The polished surface may cut a dimpled aggregate
in such a way as to make a region of cement paste appear completely surrounded by
aggregate. Large irregularly shaped continuous air voids may be inadvertently
segmented into smaller voids. The polished surface may cut an aggregate such that less
than 0.004 mm2 is exposed at the surface, and misclassify the aggregate as cement paste.
Figure 5 shows an example subset of the final classified image.

Automated modified point count

In order to perform a modified point count according to ASTM C457, an 8775 x 8775
pixel subset was taken from the classified image to yield an area of 77 cm2. A threshold
was applied to the subset to create a binary image that contained only those pixels
classified as air void. A Boolean AND operation was performed between the binary air
void image and an 8775 x 8775 pixel binary image of a 39 x 39 point grid. The number
of intersections between air voids and the grid were automatically tabulated. A Boolean
AND operation was also performed between the binary air void image and an 8775 x
8775 pixel binary image of equally spaced parallel lines with a total length of 3.8 meters.
The number of air void intercepts with the parallel lines was automatically tabulated. A
threshold was also applied to the subset of the classified image to create a binary image
that contained only those pixels classified as aggregate. Again, a Boolean AND
operation was performed with a 39 x 39 point grid, and the number of intersections
automatically tabulated. The number of intersections with cement paste was obtained by
subtracting the sum of the air void and aggregate intersections from 1,521 (39 x 39). The
automated modified point count procedure was repeated ten times. Each time the
position of the grid was shifted in the x,y direction, and the orientation of the parallel
lines rotated 18°.
Figure 5: A 13.0 x 11.7 millimeter (1298 x 1169 pixel) subset of the final classified
image.
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 1 shows the results of the ten automated modified point counts. Table 2 shows the
average of the automated modified point count results compared to the manual modified
point count results. Table 1 demonstrates that there is considerable variation between
trials when the grid position is shifted and the parallel line orientation is rotated. Table 2
shows that the automated procedure overestimates the volume of cement paste and
underestimates the volume of aggregate as compared to the manual procedure. For the
air void statistics, there is general agreement between the automated and manual
procedures, although the air void frequency is slightly higher in the automated trials.

Table 1: Results of automated modified point count trials.

raw data 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2
area analyzed (cm ) 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77 77
air void stops 109 102 144 115 99 100 106 105 107 116
cement paste stops 533 539 501 542 528 554 536 525 520 542
aggregate stops 879 880 876 864 894 867 879 891 894 863
total stops 1521 1521 1521 1521 1521 1521 1521 1521 1521 1521
traverse length (mm) 3861 3855 3807 3807 3855 3861 3855 3807 3807 3855
air void intercepts 2133 2197 1767 1746 2204 2038 2082 1740 1746 2178
results ˚ ˚ ˚ ˚ ˚ ˚ ˚ ˚ ˚ ˚
vol % aggregate 57.8 57.9 57.6 56.8 58.8 57.0 57.8 58.6 58.8 56.7
vol % air voids 7.2 6.7 9.5 7.6 6.5 6.6 7.0 6.9 7.0 7.6
vol % cement paste 35.0 35.4 32.9 35.6 34.7 36.4 35.2 34.5 34.2 35.6
void frequency (voids/m) 552 570 464 459 572 528 540 457 459 565
avg. chord length (mm) 0.130 0.118 0.204 0.165 0.114 0.125 0.129 0.151 0.153 0.135
-1
air void specific surface (mm ) 30.8 34.0 19.6 24.3 35.1 32.1 31.0 26.5 26.1 29.6
paste/air ratio 4.9 5.3 3.5 4.7 5.3 5.5 5.1 5.0 4.9 4.7
spacing factor (mm) 0.149 0.140 0.177 0.186 0.136 0.151 0.150 0.175 0.175 0.152

Table 3 shows the results of an accuracy assessment between the phases reported at the
center coordinates of the 1,424 microscope images and the phases reported at the
corresponding coordinate from the classified image. Overall, the classified pixels were in
agreement with the reference data 88.7% of the time. The most common error was the
misclassification of aggregate as cement paste. As shown in Table 3, of the 904
aggregate reference points, 103 were misclassified as cement paste.
Table 2: Results of manual modified point count, and the averaged results of the
automatic modified point count trials.

average of
raw data manual trial automated trials
area analyzed (cm2) 76 ˚
air void stops 107 ˚
cement paste stops 445 ˚
aggregate stops 954 ˚
total stops 1506 ˚
traverse length (mm) 3810 ˚
air void intercepts 1714 ˚
results ˚ ˚
vol % aggregate 63.3 57.8
vol % air voids 7.1 7.3
vol % cement paste 29.5 35.0
void frequency (voids/m) 450 517
avg. chord length (mm) 0.158 0.142
air void specific surface (mm-1) 25.3 28.9
paste/air ratio 4.2 4.9
spacing factor (mm) 0.164 0.159

Table 3: Error matrix comparing classified pixels to microscope image reference data.

reference air reference reference

row total
void aggregate cement paste

classified air
86 7 23 116
void

classified
0 794 17 811
aggregate

classified
11 103 383 497
cement paste

column total 97 904 423 1424

overall accuracy = 1263/1424 (88.7%)

Figure 6: A 13.0 x 11.7 millimeter mosaic of a 5 x 6 grid of the microscope images used
to assess the accuracy of the classified image.
Figure 6 is a montage of a 5 x 6 grid of the reference microscope images, and is included
for a visual comparison between the microscope views seen by the manual operator and
the scanned images used in the automatic classification. The area shown in Figure 6
corresponds directly to the scanned image subsets of Figures 1 through 5

After consideration of the results of the modified point counts and accuracy assessment,
and careful examination of the microscope and scanned images, the primary problem
with the automated procedure is the misclassification of aggregate as cement paste. The
misclassification most commonly occurs with quartz sand particles. Some quartz sand
particles are highly transparent, and the contact with the cement paste can be clearly seen
through the sand particle. When the surface is treated with phenolphthalein, the solution
penetrates so that even cement paste beneath the surface is stained pink. Pink-stained
cement is sometimes visible through the polished quartz sand particles. In such
instances, portions of the sand particle, and in some cases the entire particle, may be
misclassified as cement paste. To counteract the transparent quartz sand effect, future
samples will be prepared on an automated lapping machine with loose SiC grit. Minerals
prepared with loose SiC grit often have a slightly frosted appearance, and it is hoped that
this will interfere with the translucent properties of the quartz sand.

REFERENCES

1) C457-98 Standard Test Method for Microscopical Determination of

Parameters of the Air-Void System in Hardened Concrete, American Society
for Testing and Materials, West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, 2000.

2) Peterson K.W., Swartz R.A., Sutter L.L., VanDam T.J., Air Void Analysis of
Hardened Concrete with a Flatbed Scanner Journal of the Transportation
Research Board, No. 1775, TRB, National Research Council, Washington,
D.C., pp. 36-43, 2001.

3) Sutter L.L., Macro Programming with NIH Image for Implementing ASTM
C457 Proceedings of the 20 t h International Conference on Cement
Microscopy, Guadalajara, Mexico, pp. 382-384, 1998.

4) Cracknell A.P., Hayes L.W.B., Introduction to Remote Sensing, Taylor &

Francis, New York, 1991.

5) Jensen J.R., Introductory Digital Image Processing: A Remote Sensing

Perspective, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 1996.

6) Russ J.C., Computer-Assisted Microscopy — The Measurement and Analysis

of Images, Plenum Press, New York, 1990.