Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

New and advanced methodologies have been developed to characterize the nano and microstructure of cement paste and concrete exposed to aggressive environments. High resolution full field soft X-ray imaging in the water window is providing new insight into the cement hydration process on the nano scale. Hard X-ray microtomography results on ice inside cement paste and cracking caused by the alkali-silica reaction (ASR) enables 3dimensional structural identification. The potential of neutron diffraction to determine reactive aggregates by measuring their residual strains and preferred orientation is being explored.