3D visualisation of pore structures in cement-based materials by LSCM

The visualisation and representation of three-dimensional (3D) pore morphologies in cement-based materials are of significant interest for understanding the relationship between pore structures and durability. In this study, laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) was used to observe a series of two-dimensional (2D) cross-sectional images. Thresholding was used as the image segmentation technique to group the image pixels by checking the pixel intensities against a set of thresholds. 3D models of the pore structures and the matrix were reconstructed by grey-level interpolation, which transformed the 2D cross-sectional images into 3D models. The experimental results show that the 3D complex morphologic characters of pore structures and the matrix can be accurately visualised with the image segmentation technique and grey-level interpolation.