In-situ tracking of water transport in cement paste using X-ray computed tomography combined with CsCl enhancing

X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT) combined with CsCl enhancing was applied for the first time to the investigation of water transport in hardened cement paste. The results show that the contrast of water in CT image is obviously improved by adding CsCl to the water. The evolution of water ingress into cement paste can be continuously monitored by X-ray CT technique and the process can be reconstructed as 2D and 3D mapping. The quantitative relationship between water uptake height and exposed time is also established in this paper. It is illustrated that X-ray CT combined with CsCl enhancing is a powerful and reliable tool for the visualization of fluid transport in cement-based materials. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.