A study of clinker microstructure using scanning electron microscope

Abstract

This paper presents a study of clinker microstructure using Scanning Electron Microscope with Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (SEM-EDS). Use of SEM-EDS allows measuring bulk phase abundance and surface areas of the phases, as well as bulk chemistry of constituent phases. SEM-EDS imaging used to yield complete picture of surface composition and mineral phases in clinker. With the visual mapping, image has been segmented into the constituent phases of the microstructure and it provides images for alite, belite, tricalcium aluminate, ferrite, and other minor components. Once the image is segmented, it may be analyzed to extract information such as bulk phase abundance, phase surface area, and feature size.