Quantification of void shape in cemented materials

A color based segmentation procedure and a modified signature technique have been applied to the detection and analyses of complicated void shapes in cemented materials. The gray-scale segmentation and available signature methods were found to be inefficient especially for the analyses of complicated void shapes. The applicability of the developed methodology has been demonstrated on artificially prepared cemented materials made of self compacted concrete material. In order to characterize the void shapes in the investigated sample images, two new shape parameters called as coefficients of inclusion and exclusion have been proposed. When compared with the traditional use of the signature method, it was found that the methodology followed herein would better characterize complicated void shapes. The methodology followed in this study may be applied to the analysis of complicated void shapes that are often encountered in other cementitious materials such as clays and rocks.