This paper describes the application of high resolution industrial CT x-ray scans to measure air void parameters in concrete in three dimensions. This patent pending technique uses small diameter samples of hardened or fresh concrete that can be scanned at resolutions of up to 10 microns. The resulting dataset is a three dimensional representation of the sample showing the spatial distribution of aggregate, paste and air voids. Software is currently under development to automatically measure specific attributes of the air voids such as air void size and size distribution, mean spacing between voids and surface area. This method has the potential to offer significant advantages over current linear traverse and point count methods due to increased reliability, reproducibility and statistical accuracy. Future work will focus on establishing a more direct link between analytical results and concrete performance.
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