Comparing fracture openings in mortar using different imaging techniques

This paper presents a quantitative characterisation of the fracture openings obtained in triaxial shear tests on several cement mortar samples. The comparison was carried out on three samples with various apertures using different methods of semi-destructive and non-destructive characterisation: optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray computed tomography, digital volume correlation and the ¹⁴C-polymethylmethacrylate method. The fracture aperture distribution results are in good agreement between the different methods. Although the opening results obtained are comparable, the most advantageous method was considered to be XRCT profile analysis based on the size of the target area studied and the specific characteristics of each technique.